Everybody Changes
by Slayer94
Summary: Beth is taken and every time Daryl tries to go and find her something stands in his way, a walker herd, cannibals, claimers, psycho hunters, the list seems endless. Luckily, Beth doesn't need saving, she can save herself just fine. Beth/Daryl
1. Chapter 1

A/N Hi, this is the first fan fiction I've written in a long time, so please be gentle with me! This fic will be multi chapter, I'm aiming around 100'000 words with around 2'000 words per chapter. I'll update as often as possible but please be aware that I'm 22 years old and work full time so it's not going to be daily or anything like that!

Also, there probably won't be an author's note on every chapter; I find them kind of annoying to read through so I won't subject you to my ramblings. Last thing, I'm English so some of my spelling may be a little different.

Full Summary:

Beth is taken and every time Daryl tries to go and find her something stands in his way, a walker herd, cannibals, claimers, psycho hunters, the list seems endless. Luckily, Beth doesn't need saving, she can save herself just fine.

Basically this is a badass Beth fic with a Bethyl pairing, the whole group is involved and this isn't one of those Beth and Daryl alone in the woods for ages and ages fic. While there will be romance this isn't a 'damn romance novel' and there will be drama and action aplenty!

Hopefully by chapter three you should be able to tell if this is your kind of fic, please enjoy!

 **Chapter One - Beth**

Beth wouldn't have described herself as an angry person. Yes, she had been angry in the past and her temper could only be pushed so far but looking back before the hospital she had never felt rage. In fact she prided herself on being happy, finding the good in a world full of bad. Ever since her suicide attempt back on the farm she tried her best to stay positive even if she sometimes felt a little cut off from her emotions.

In the end it had been pure rage that had pushed her forward and given her the strength to fight.

From the moment she had woken up surrounded by white walls, strange doctors and even stranger police officers she had been pissed off. Even an optimist can only stay positive for so long in the apocalypse and she knew that the bullshit story they had told her about saving her life, her being alone on the side of the road was just that, bullshit. Daryl wouldn't have just left her.

It was a few days after that when the rage took hold. It was when she connected the dots and worked out exactly what was going on in the hospital that the foreign emotion had seeped in and settled at the pit of her stomach.

She hadn't wasted a second. From that moment on she was on the look out for her chance to escape. Even with the anger and if she were to be honest, a fair amount of fear, rolling around inside of her she still managed to keep a level head and think back to all Daryl had taught her out on the road. The trouble she found herself in would require a certain finesse to get out of, different than the countless walkers she had killed even before leaving the prison, she had to be smarter about this.

So she stayed quiet. She watched and she listened. She even made sure to flinch away when people got close, adding a small whimper here and there to really sell the meek image she was trying to portray. It worked like a charm

It didn't take long to connect with Noah after a few meaningful looks and vague suggestions that there was something wrong in their little sanctuary. He wanted out as much as Beth did and again, if Beth were entirely honest she had let out a great sigh of relief knowing that Noah stood beside her. She didn't feel quite so alone.

At first the two new friends stole a few whispered words to each other as they went about their chores, frantically trying to plan an escape under the radar so to speak. With Noah's limp and Beth's busted wrist they knew it was going to be tough. As two weeks turned to three and then three into four Beth started to get the sense that she was in real and immediate danger. Noah sensed it too and he wanted to make a break for it as soon as possible.

Beth disagreed.

"There's too many cops for us to just slip away unnoticed. We need a distraction, we need there to be a couple less cops period." She whispered to Noah when they were mopping side by side down a slightly less used corridor, sending him a pointed look. Noah turned a little green at the insinuation they were going to have to kill.

"We can't stay here much longer, Gorman keeps staring at you." Noah pleaded.

Beth glanced up and down the hallway before lifting her shirt slightly; revealing a plastic knife which she had sharpened to a wicked point. When she met Noah's eyes there was a glint of steel in them and he knew then that he had been right all along about her, she was a fighter.

"Noah, he tries anything with me, he won't know what hit him." She promised in a low, cold voice that almost had Noah shivering. "In fact, him trying something is just what we need, the night he tries it, the night I kill him, that's the night we get the fuck out of here."

That night Noah snuck into Beth's room and after an hour of so of whispered conversation he shimmied under her bed and fell asleep on the cold linoleum. The next morning, before the sun was even up Beth woke him and checked the coast was clear before Noah scuttled back to his room.

From then on Noah's presence in Beth's room during the night was a given, they'd talk in whispers for a couple of hours, mostly discussing what they had managed to steal and stash away but there were also moments of normal friendship too. Commiserating over the lack of fast food, bonding over movies and music and debating the best brand of doughnut were all topics that came up over the week and a half since Noah had first spent the night.

After five and a half weeks since Beth's kidnapping the moment both she and Noah knew was coming finally arrived. It was late when Gorman tried to quietly open the door to Beth's room. The two friends had made preparations for a situation just like that one and as he pushed open the door the small piece of rubber Beth had jammed underneath the bottom of the door squeaked just loud enough the wake up her and Noah.

Beth's hand was dangling over the side of the bed and Noah squeezed her fingers once to let her know he was awake. She squeezed back then withdrew her hand beneath her pillow, clutching the shiv concealed there, all the time keeping her eyes firmly closed. The element of surprise, that's what their plan depended on.

Beth waited until Gorman was right beside her before fluttering her eyes in an imitation of just waking up. She wanted to be sure it was one of the cops and not someone else with more innocent intentions. She registered that it was definitely Gorman and he was reaching down to cover her mouth so she couldn't cry out. He didn't even touch her before she had sprung up and jammed the shiv into his neck, remembering all the times he had gotten too close to her or made inappropriate remarks when no one else was around.

The two of them fell to the floor with a light thud and with her spare hand Beth smothered his face with her pillow, just like her and Noah had discussed, letting her rage finally loose to give her strength after weeks of holding it at bay. Gorman tried to kick his feet to make noise but Noah was there to hold his legs still, his face a stony mask.

Gorman's muffled screams sounded pathetic to Beth's ears if a little sickening and she was glad when he eventually stopped moving. As soon as Gorman was dead the pair sprung into action, they pulled out bags that had been stashed in the ceiling and in less than a minute Noah was checking the hallway was clear before the two of them lifted Gorman's corpse and carried it out.

They had debated the next stage of their plan for hours on end, Beth wanted to let Gorman turn and set him loose on the other cops. Noah agreed that it was a good idea and they deserved it but what if Gorman turned too quickly? He had seen a woman turn in under thirty seconds before and he's also seen it take hours, he argued until he was blue in the face that it was just too risky, too unpredictable. They had only settled it two days prior to the their trap being sprung. Beth had made the decision and proclaimed it not to be up for discussion. It was their best chance.

As it was Noah held a second shiv at the base of Gorman's neck, ready to deliver the final deathblow should he start to reanimate too soon. It was the only concession that Beth had agreed to. Half way down the hall a door opened cautiously on their right and a young woman who Beth recognised as Annie looked out. She gasped when her eyes fell on Gorman's obviously dead body.

Beth and Noah froze, waiting to see what she would do, they had known this to be a possibility but they hadn't managed to come up with a solution should it actually happen. Beth had a feeling that Annie wouldn't be all that upset, she had seen the way Annie shied away from the man. Annie took a tentative step from her doorway and then another, more confident, step in their direction. Then, with a look of smug satisfaction Annie spat right in Gorman's pale face.

"Come with us." Beth whispered, not even giving herself chance to second-guess her decision.

"Ok." Annie said simply, grabbing a jumper from inside her room.

Beth and Noah had originally decided against inviting anyone else into their small fold for one simple, resounding reason. None of the others had any fight in them, it was written all over their faces. The new world outside the hospital had chewed them up and the evil bastards inside had spit them out and now, they no longer cared. The rebellious display by Annie had been the most life that she had displayed since Beth had arrived almost six weeks before. When Beth looked to Noah apologetically he simply nodded his agreement once.

Beth pulled Gorman's gun from the holster at his waist and handed it to Annie before continuing down the corridor to the staff room that the cops had decided was their private lounge. Beth had never even seen inside but Noah had been in once or twice to clean up. There was alcohol, dirty magazines and illicit substances of all descriptions. It was where most of the cops spent the night and it was where Gorman would be unleashed.

They stood by the door and listened to the laughter and crude language that emitted from the room. Just as planned Beth took all of Gorman's weight as Noah grabbed one of the heavy chairs a little way down the hall, when he struggled Annie rushed to help him and Beth was grateful the quiet girl had peeked from behind her doorway just moments ago.

As Noah and Annie made their way back, trying to stay silent Beth felt Gorman begin to twitch and threw a slightly panicked look at Noah, but when he went to put down the chair she shook her head and gestured for him to hurry up whilst manoeuvring Gorman so he was pressed up against the wall, his jaws no where near her vulnerable flesh.

When the chair was situated beside the door the three of them waited with baited breath for Gorman's transformation to be complete. When his jaws began to snap hungrily Noah wrenched open the door and Beth pushed the new walker inside quickly. Noah slammed the door shut and together they wedged the chair in front of the door.

"What now?" Annie questioned calmly as shouts and screams rang out from the sealed room.

"Elevator shaft, that's how we're getting out." Beth explained briefly.

As the three of them ran for the elevator shaft they could hear banging from the staffroom and doors opening around them as people went to investigate. They paid no one much mind until they were hurtling past Dawn's office. Her door burst open and Beth would have laughed at the look on her face under any other circumstance. As it was she barely even registered what she was doing, stabbing into Dawn's neck with the shiv still clutched in her hand.

Beth watched as the annoyance in Dawn's eyes turned into surprise and then terror, as realisation dawned on the sorry excuse for a policewoman, she wouldn't be walking away from that. Still, Dawn frantically tried pressing her hands to the gaping wound on her neck and Beth didn't flinch as she relieved her of the gun at her hip and couldn't stop herself from getting the last word in.

"You let this happen." She said softly in her ear. "This is all on you."

Rage. It doesn't have to be explosive. It can be quiet, it can be ruthless and it can most definitely be deadly.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two – Daryl

After collapsing to his knees at those crossroads Daryl felt like everything had turned to shit. Someone had taken Beth, he didn't know who they were or where they had taken her. He had no idea where the rest of his family were and the one person who had helped him keep faith was the same person who had been taken from him so suddenly.

The claimers had been the kick up the arse he needed. When he'd seen Rick, Carl and Michonne he had been scared for them and did what he did for his family. He fought and he fought hard. It hadn't been enough though and they would all have been dead if it hadn't been for Rick losing it slightly and ripping a chunk out of that guy's throat.

He was reminded of the lengths that he and the rest of his group went to for the ones they loved. As he headed towards Terminus it was with a new resolve, he would regroup with his family and then they'd go and get Beth together.

Of course Terminus had been a complete cluster fuck. They had narrowly escaped with their lives, but at the end of the day they did escape, thanks to a newly returned Carol. Daryl had thought that he would never see her again so watching her emerge from the trees had been like witnessing an honest to God miracle.

It was after they had escaped Terminus and found temporary shelter in a shack in the middle of the woods that Daryl thought they could start looking for Beth. They were back together, all of them that could be, and Daryl assumed that the next step would be to track the bastards that had taken Beth. It had been a whole week since she'd been taken but he was sure that she was still alive, Beth was fighter and she was out there somewhere doing all she could to survive, he just had to find her.

After the shack had been cleared and a meagre dinner served most of the group went to sleep in the two bedrooms, the newest members taking one room and Daryl's family spread across the other and the living room.

Daryl didn't want to sleep. His jaw clenched as he thought of the extra hours, potentially days, that Beth would have to survive through as they all slept. Together. It was killing him to think of Beth alone somewhere, surrounded by people who clearly meant her harm.

"You not gonna sleep?" Rick asked, clapping Daryl on the shoulder firmly as he sat beside him on the steps at the front of the building.

"Can't." Daryl grunted in response, not even glancing away from his watch across the dark grass to the forest beyond.

"You and me both. But we're ok, we found everyone, we're going to be ok."

"Not everyone." Daryl snapped, shaking off Rick's hand. "I've told y'all that Beth survived the prison, that she was taken. She's out there somewhere and we're here having fuckin nap time"

"Daryl." Rick said lowly. He didn't speak again until Daryl had looked at him directly. "We all want Beth back, you know the lengths we go to for family. Folks shouldn't mess with us, they don't know what they're getting themselves into."

"I know that Man, but we need to do something now!" Daryl spoke desperately.

"We've got to be smart about this brother." Rick implored, once again laying a hand on Daryl's shoulder. "We can barely stand, we've got no food, not much water and none of us are in the best shape. We have to think this through."

"Ok." Daryl sighed and Rick's hand dropped back to his pocket in the way men's hands do when they've just done anything that could be described as emotional. "We need to be strong to find Beth, I get that."

"Daryl. Remember what I've just said, but we need to have a conversation." Rick spoke in the way he always did when he had to ask questions he'd rather not ask. "It's been days since you saw Beth, you have no idea where she is or who's taken her. How're we gonna find her? I don't want to ask but, do you really think she's still alive?"

Daryl didn't like the way Rick had asked those questions, even if he knew the questions needed to be asked.

What really bothered Daryl was the way Rick was implying that Beth was weak. He couldn't help but think that if they were talking about any other member of their family they wouldn't be asking like this. The questions may be asked but everyone would assume they were still alive, they would have faith that they had found a way to keep on living and to not extend that to Beth? It was paramount to calling her weak in Daryl's eyes. How else could he take that pitying, hopeless look in Rick's eyes. That was what burned Daryl with an intensity that shocked him.

"Screw you." Daryl growled, not having anything else to say. He didn't want to sit there and have to explain how he knew Beth was still alive.

In the end he didn't have to explain. As he stood up to storm away and maybe have a smoke walkers began wandering into the clearing from the surrounding woods.

All disagreements forgotten Daryl and Rick had worked as partners in their usual, efficient way and the whole group had been up and running in a matter of minutes.

They had run for about five hours, blindly stumbling through the dark woods as the group of maybe forty walkers snapped hungrily at their heels. While not quite a herd they were bigger than the average pack and too many for the exhausted group to take care of. They never tired, they never let up and in the end it had been Abe who had finally had enough and declared he would sort it before setting off at a sprint to disappear through the trees.

Ten minutes later and the group could smell smoke on the air as well as hear strange shouts and crashes from behind them, away to the East. Gradually the walkers seemed to find the smoke and loud noises behind them to be more enticing and when they stopped to catch their breaths there were only sixteen walkers following on their trail. They had dispatched the walkers with relative ease and when they were confident that there were no more immediately following they settled in to wait for Abe. Rosita was ready to go after him but in the nick of time the ginger tank emerged from the underbrush, covered head to toe in gore. The white of his grinning teeth was the only clean part of him and he made a terrifying sight.

Rosita grinned back and went to hug him before pulling back, wrinkling her nose. "Sorry, but that shit stinks for days, I don't need that."

"Good job man." Daryl offered up, still scanning the immediate area for threats. Abe took a mock bow, panting a little.

"Should hold their attention for a while, don't know how long it's bought us though." He looked to Rick who nodded his understanding; they were a long way from safe yet.

They dropped the gruelling pace slightly but kept pushing on and eventually they hit a walking trail, which they followed to an information board that mapped out the area, and an hour later the ragged group finally hit tarmac after quickly refilling their water bottles in a river. Abe had taken the opportunity to clean off as best he could and Rosita finally crushed him in a hug, smacking the huge man for running off without her.

It didn't take them long to find a couple of cars to squeeze the group into but then finding a place to rest up took them two whole days, everywhere seemed burned out or packed with walkers. By the time they had found a small bike rental store to hole up in the group was on its last legs. Most of them collapsed as soon as the store was cleared and it was left to Rick, Daryl, Tara and Abe to secure their resting place. They sealed the place up tight after finding a way onto the flat roof of the store, it was a better vantage point than the front step anyway.

Once again Daryl found himself on watch with Rick, everyone else crashed out. Even Rick seemed to be drooping but Daryl couldn't keep still, he practically shook with the frustration of still being no further to finding Beth than he had when he'd first dropped to his knees at those damned crossroads. He bitterly wished he could go back to that moment. He would have picked a road and just gone with it, if he didn't find Beth then fine, he'd have just gone and taken the other road instead, he could only be wrong once.

"I'm sorry for asking you those questions." Rick started, he'd thought about it a lot since they'd had to run from the cabin. He had been so scared that they were going to lose someone in the escape but he couldn't imagine life without any of them, maybe not the new group but the others, they'd been through so much together and when he really thought about it he still felt that way about Beth. She'd just never seemed quite as equipped to handle the new world as some of the other women that were or had been part of their family.

"I get it. You gotta ask, that's your job as leader, asking the hard questions. But Rick, she's alive." Daryl looked his friend, his brother, right in the eye as he said that, willing him to believe.

"I know. I've been thinking about her and I don't think that we gave her enough credit at the prison. She was always there; she did just as much as everyone, if not more. She might not have been the warrior Michonne is or gone on as many runs as Maggie but she helped to make decisions in our community and she stepped up and looked after my little girl when I couldn't. Hell she even took care of Carl when I checked out on him." Rick's voice was quiet with shame and Daryl knew that Lori's death and his consequent mental state would always be one of Rick's darkest moments.

"You came back, that's what matters." Daryl said gruffly. "Trust me brother, there's plenty of men out there who never come back." Daryl lapsed into silence; he knew that Rick had more to say, specifically about finding Beth.

"You know that Abe wants to get Eugene to DC as fast as possible." He opened.

"And we will. As soon as we have Beth back." Daryl said resolutely.

"We need to rest up, no one's going anywhere right now. But I know Abraham is getting impatient." Rick continued.

"Fine." Daryl said with a shrug.

"Fine?" Asked Rick warily, knowing that Daryl's answer did not mean in any way that they would all be setting off for DC in the morning.

"He can push on to DC, he's got a purpose, I can respect that. Hell you can all go with him, if you want. Like I say. Fine. Me? I won't be leaving Georgia until I've found Beth." Daryl was resolute, he loved the group, in his own way but he had done a lot of thinking over the past two days. He wasn't going anywhere until he found Beth, if the others wanted to run off to DC he wouldn't be stopping them, he'd find Beth and then try to catch up to them.

"We are not splitting up." Rick said just as resolutely. "Not when we've just found each other, we gotta stick together. This is a group decision and we'll treat it as such. We'll talk about it tomorrow, everyone can make their case."

Daryl nodded but didn't say anything and eventually Rick sighed, crawling through the hatch back into the rental store. It didn't matter what anyone else said, he was his own man and he'd already made up his mind.

While Daryl's eyes remained focussed on the area around him his mind did not. He constantly thought of where Beth could be. He knew Atlanta was in the direction that the car had driven but then so were a lot of places, a hundred spots that could have been fortified and sustain a population out that way.

He almost didn't hear Carol climbing through the hatch Rick had vanished through not ten minutes before. Almost.

"There a damn line of ya down there?" He snarked.

"I just wanted to talk to you is all. And I couldn't help over hearing your conversation with Rick." She said, ignoring his jibe entirely.

"Yeah I bet you couldn't." Daryl muttered. Again Carol didn't react and she sat down next to him, patting his arm.

"I agree with you by the way." She said softly. "This family is the most important thing in the world to me, hang the cure, we need to find Beth, she's one of our own."

Daryl's head snapped up to look at his friend and was hit with emotion. To have her unwavering support meant a lot to him. If Rick was his brother then Carol was his sister and to hear her say almost exactly what he was thinking was priceless. He took comfort in knowing that he wasn't the only thinking about their missing blonde. As he felt his eyes grow a little wet and his throat begin to close he pulled Carol into a side hug, squeezing her shoulders tightly.

"I'm so glad you came back, and not just because you saved our arses back at Terminus." He joked, trying to play off the minor display of emotion, they made him uncomfortable.

"Me too." She said softly and Daryl knew she was thinking about all the things that went unsaid.

"Rick told me." He said simply, referring to the people Carol had killed what felt like months ago now. "Way back before the prison fell."

"I know." Carol replied just as simply. She smiled in response to Daryl's questioning look. "There's no secrets in your little bromance." She joked.

"I know why you did it." Daryl stated, not breaking eye contact so his friend could see he wasn't lying to her.

"And I know why Rick sent me away." Carol sighed. "He thinks I crossed a line. I didn't think so at the time but now, well now I don't know. I know that there's still a line, I know people cross it every day. Shane crossed it, the Governor crossed it and the people at Terminus crossed it. What I know for certain is that I don't want to be like those people. I don't think that things will ever be the same for me in the group, no matter what Rick said when I found you after Terminus, he looks at me differently now. I know he's analysing me, deciding if I'm a threat, if I'm unstable."

"This is a fresh start Carol." Was all Daryl could say. "It's just going to take time. The looks will fade, you just have to keep the hope and show Rick that he can trust you. He knows he can rely on ya."

"Maybe you're right. It does feel new, like we've started a new chapter in our history. The prison's gone but our group survived to see the next one written. Mostly."

"That's all we can ask for." Daryl grunted. "You should go get some rest. There's gonna be a meeting in the mornin, I need you ready to back me up when shit goes south."

"I have your back Daryl, and I know others will too." She squeezed his shoulder once as she stood and walked away.

"Carol." He said just before she reached the hatch. She stopped and turned to face him. "I'm not going to DC without Beth. I've made my choice." Carol was still for a minute and Daryl held his breath. She nodded slowly.

"Then neither am I." She said simply.

Carol disappeared through the hatch and Daryl's shoulders sagged with relief. No one else emerged until four hours later when Glenn appeared to take over the watch, wiping sleep from his eyes as he sank down beside Daryl. Daryl didn't stand up right away; even if his bones felt like lead and his eyes itched to close he wasn't ready to sleep yet.

"Hey man." Glenn greeted quietly, not wanting to disturb the silent blackness. "How's it been?"

"Quiet. A couple walkers passed through but they didn't come close, just wandered off. Didn't see the point in taking em out." Glenn nodded and rubbed his face again. He still looked like shit, Daryl thought to himself, even after a slight rest, he dreaded to think how he must look.

"You should go get some rest while you can." Glenn advised and Daryl nodded slowly, contemplating whether he should bring up the situation with Beth, see if he and Maggie would back him up at the meeting.

"Yeah. Just gotta talk to you about somethin first." Daryl started, watching as Glenn turned to face him curiously.

"Sure man." Glenn invited.

"It's about Beth. You know she got out of the prison, I told Maggie that back in that damn rail car." Glenn nodded to confirm it and Daryl pressed on. "She's still alive out there, I know the general direction she was taken in and I know what the car looks like. Find that car and we find Beth." He stopped again and sighed. "There's going to be a meeting in the morning about what we do after this. Abe wants to get Eugene to DC soon as. I don't want to leave while Beth's still here, she's one of us and we don't leave people behind." He stopped to let Glenn reply, something holding him back from telling the younger man that his decision was already made.

"I'm hoping this cure is real, I want it to be real so bad." Glenn admitted. "But you're right, Beth's one of our own. She's family, hell she genuinely is my family! I'll stand with you tomorrow."

"Maggie?" Asked Daryl gently.

"I don't know." Glenn sighed. "She wants her sister back more than anything right now, more than any promise of a cure. It's not that she'd rather go to DC, she's just scared to hope. After the prison, when she found me before we went to fucking Terminus, I know she thought Beth was dead. We didn't know who else had gotten out and who had fallen, we went to Terminus because we hoped you would all be there. We wanted to find you."

"Beth was sure that we'd find you eventually, she never stopped believing it for a second. Even if I did for a while." He added softly. Glenn smiled sadly, he knew that feeling all too well.

"When Maggie found out she'd been taken, that she was out there on her own, she crumbled man. At first she was alive again, she believed, I could tell. But then she started having doubts. You can't deny the situation is pretty shit man."

"I know." Daryl replied. He didn't know what to say, he wanted to say that Maggie should get her shit together and have a little faith but knew he wasn't one to judge after he'd just given up at those crossroads.

Daryl retreated back inside the store and picked a spot by the boarded up front door to lie down and try get some sleep.

The next morning there seemed to be a layer of tension resting over the group. They had all gathered in the staffroom, Daryl had declined one of the chairs in favour of leaning against the wall, arms already crossed defensively across his chest where his heart was beating hard.

He knew that this could be a hard sell to a few people, they were talking about a damn cure to all the crazy that had rained down on them for the last what, two years? His jaw clenched before Rick had even begun speaking and he blocked out the first part of his monologue. Rick spoke about what they had been through and how they were going to keep surviving from here because that was what they had to do, survive. He said that they had some decisions to make as a family and they were going to have this little talk calmly. At which point he had looked pointedly at Daryl and Abraham.

Finally Rick had finished his piece and silence descended. The choice seemed a simple one, go to DC with the hope of a cure or settle back down in Georgia with the possibility of finding Beth. Daryl once again didn't like how Rick implied there was a chance Beth was already dead, even though deep down he knew it could be true.

 _She's not just another dead girl._

The thought had Daryl shifting uncomfortably against the wall as he remembered Beth say almost that exact same thing to him. Abe was looking around at the faces in the room, trying to gauge reactions. When his eyes hit Daryl's they stopped and Daryl steeled his expression, making clear that on this, they were on different sides.

"We are talking about the damn salvation of Mankind." Abe stated abruptly. "This man right here can flip the off switch on this shit storm and all we need to do it get him to DC, we can rebuild there." He shook Eugene's shoulder roughly and the man flinched, looking mightily uncomfortable. Daryl noticed.

"Yeah well I'm talkin about one of our own. Beth." Daryl declared, he looked directly at Maggie and was pissed off to see red, swollen, unsure eyes looking back at him. He knew that she was tougher than that. "I know the car, we can find her." He implored.

"We don't know why they even took her." Tyreese said quietly, he had liked Beth a lot but there were no good reasons for taking young women and Tyreese was worried about what had already happened to her.

"We don't gotta think about that!" Daryl exploded. "She is still alive." He followed stonily. "She's smart and she's strong. She's out there somewhere right now surviving!" He finished desperately.

"How do you know?" Michonne asked, ever practical.

Daryl froze momentarily. How did he know? He knew because he knew her, he knew she had a fire in her that wasn't easily smothered. To his shame he had tried that night when they'd gotten drunk on moonshine, he's said things purposefully to hurt her, to break her and she hadn't given a damn inch. The girl was granite. He couldn't say that though, not to the whole group.

"Do you know that she didn't give up on any of you even once?" He deflected with an attack of his own. He felt cornered and wanted to lash out, pleased when more than a few people visibly flinched at his harsh words. Hell, if he had to guilt trip them into looking for Beth he'd do it. "Dragged me all over the fucking place trying to find a trace of you, Jesus Christ she had me teachin her how to fight, track, hunt, all so that she was better fuckin prepared to find you. I'd bet my last fuckin dollar that Beth is out there right now tryin to find a way back to us, her family. She's not just waitin on us to go save her she is fighting and yall just want to give up and fuck off to DC? Be my fucking guest but if you haven't given up on her, if you wanna find Beth, then stay, help me!" Daryl lapsed into silence and no one filled it.

Maybe someone would have eventually but they didn't get a chance, they heard the rumble of a truck outside the shop and just as before all arguments were forgotten for the time being. Glenn was first to the boarded up window, peering out just in time to see five men step out of a beat up pick up. He watched as they raised their guns and flicked the safety off.

"Get down!" He yelled as the men began to open fire at the storefront.

As Daryl hit the deck and splinters of wood and bullets ripped through the flimsy walls he had thought that the entire fucking world was conspiring against him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three – Beth

After Dawn was dead, finally dead, Beth slipped into her office and reclaimed the knife that she knew was stashed in Dawn's top drawer along with a couple of others that didn't belong to her and most importantly the elevator keys. Within minutes the trio were running down the hall to the elevator shaft, dragging Dawn's corpse along with them. Noah pulled a length of rope from his bag and when he reached the set of chairs screwed into the floor near the metal doorway he tied off the rope securely.

"We need to hurry." Noah stated as the noise from inside the staffroom increased, his voice was steady, everything was going exactly as he and Beth had planned it.

The door was still intact but they knew that one lone walker wouldn't take out the entire room and soon the surviving cops would be coming for them, and they would be angry as hell.

Beth got the elevator door unlocked and Annie helped her to push it open as Noah finished tying the rope off. At Beth's instruction Annie pushed Dawn's body down the shaft with no small amount of satisfaction while Beth checked the bullets in both guns they had acquired. With Annie and Noah anchoring her in place Beth leaned out over the opening and began shooting down into the group of walkers feasting at the bottom.

It was hard to aim from that angle and Beth struggled to breathe whilst the others were holding her round her middle to stop her falling down to the walkers below. Still almost every shot she took hit its mark and by the time she'd run out of bullets there were only four walkers left.

Not wasting any time Beth grabbed onto the rope and started the terrifying climb down to the basement, her arms aching before she was even halfway. One of the walkers was distracted from its meal by the promise of another descending the dark shaft and it began reaching for the end of the rope, which was just out of its grasp.

When Beth was just out of reach she had to stop and calm herself down. This was a part of the plan she was nervous about; she would have to take down this walker as she dropped the last few feet. Then she had to make sure Noah had a clear spot to jump down to.

She knew she couldn't hesitate; she had to commit fully to what she was about to do. She lowered her legs suddenly, knife in hand, and kicked out at the walker, making it stumble back a few feet. In the same instant she let go of the rope, knife aiming downward and before the walker could even right itself Beth was already wrenching her knife from its skull.

She quickly killed the second walker and Noah killed the third, by the time Annie landed clumsily on the pile of dead walkers the forth was lying motionless, a gaping hole in the side of its head.

"Come on, stay quiet, and be on the look out, there could be more that were trapped." Beth commanded as she scanned the shadows and listened intently. All she could hear were the echoes of cops shouting from upstairs. It sounded like all the walkers had been put down, they had to be quick.

Noah nodded confidently and set off at a run but Annie seemed unsteady on her feet and she was barely holding onto her new knife. Beth was worried; they were nowhere near finished with their escape.

"You ok?" Beth asked as she half led, half dragged the pale woman through the shadows after Noah.

Annie nodded and tried to stand straighter, her hand closing a little more around her knife. Beth nodded back, pleased to see the fight still in the other woman's eyes.

Much to Beth's surprise there were no other walkers in the basement and Noah tried unsuccessfully to jimmy the lock on the door standing between them and freedom. Beth had never wanted to get out of anywhere so bad in her entire life.

"We'll kick it down." Beth said confidently and as a pair her and Noah began kicking at the door with all their strength. The doorframe splintered after a few solid kicks and when the door eventually swung open Beth swore that the air had never smelled so sweet.

The small fenced area directly outside the basement was clear of walkers but just passed the chain link fence a small pack was beginning to gather. After hours spent watching the yard Beth and Noah knew that the cars were often left unlocked. Clearly a lack of successful break out attempts had left the fake police officers feeling over confident.

"Check the cars, they keep the keys in the glove compartments." Noah instructed and the three of them ran off to try to find an unlocked vehicle. Beth couldn't help herself and she was drawn to the car with the white cross that she knew had taken her to the hospital. She felt it only fitting that she drove it out of there.

The door opened and sure enough the keys were sitting waiting for her in the glove compartment. She smiled slightly as she picked them up.

"Guys, here." She called to the others and a couple of minutes later they were crashing through the relatively flimsy fence. Beth watched as the looming hospital grew smaller in the rear view mirror and couldn't stop a smile from growing on her lips, adrenaline rushed through her as the knowledge of her newfound freedom caught up with her.

Beth wasn't that great at driving. It wasn't that she couldn't do it she just never had all that many opportunities. She tried to avoid as many of the walkers as she could, knowing they could get stuck in the wheel arch or worse, gore could get under the bonnet and clog the engine but there were a lot of walking corpses. Beth hit more than a few of them and blood spattered the windscreen.

As the unlikely trio passed the city limits Noah gave a sigh of relief and visibly relaxed, even Annie managed to muster up a small smile. Beth did neither; her hands gripped the wheel until her knuckles turned white and she couldn't get her breathing to slow down. She felt like there was still so much for her to do. The others had just wanted to get out, Annie hadn't even planned on escaping so her expectations had been pretty low. Noah had confided in Beth that he thought his mother and brothers were probably dead by now, he had just wanted to get out of that damn hospital.

For Beth escaping Grady Memorial was just the beginning of a much larger plan. She wanted to find Daryl, she wanted her family back.

"Beth?" Noah asked softly, laying a hand gently on her arm.

"We have to find that Funeral home. From there I can figure out where Daryl went." Beth said.

"Ok." Noah started, trying to placate her. He knew all too well Beth's hope of finding Daryl and the rest of her family, Noah didn't have the heart to tell her he thought they were probably dead. "But first I think we could all use a bit of rest. We have no food and a couple of bottles of water between the three of us, we need supplies and a proper plan." He said this gently, not trying to accuse her.

"I know." Beth conceded with a slight sigh. She had known this from the minute the two of them had begun making plans. They had spoken about everything, how far they would run before stopping for rest, the fact that they would need to find some supplies and more weapons. They weren't sure if the remaining cops would try and come after them. Personally Beth thought that the hospital would probably fall pretty quickly after Dawn had been taken out. The guilt she felt for leaving so many innocents behind haunted her.

In that moment though, when they had actually made it out of Grady, Beth had felt powerful. She felt unstoppable and for a few minutes she had deluded herself that if she just kept pushing hard enough her family was sure to appear from behind the next building they passed.

"I'm sorry." Annie said in a whisper. Beth's eyes snapped to the rear view mirror to look at the older woman shaking in the back seat.

"What the hell for?" Beth asked bluntly.

"I wasn't part of the plan, I'm another mouth to feed on the road. I can't fight, I can barely run and today is the most exercise I've had in about a year. I'm useless." She finished bitterly, her head falling into her hands.

"Hey." Beth said sharply, forcing Annie to meet her eye in the mirror. "You are not useless, you are not just another mouth to feed. You hear me? I asked you to come because I couldn't leave behind someone who wanted to live. When you spit in that scumbags face I saw that you had fight left in you yet. You just gotta keep showing me that." Beth took a breath and decided to tell her something. "Once I'm pretty sure that my family thought that I was just another dead girl. Ever since then I've done my best to prove that I'm not. Not to them, it doesn't matter so much what they think, I'm proving it to me."

Annie was quiet at Beth's words but lifted her head from her hands and Beth could see a tiny spark of hope in her eyes.

"Your strength will come back." Noah promised, turning round to smile at Annie. "We don't want anything from you Annie, just for you to watch our backs and we promise we'll do the same. Won't we Beth?"

"Damn straight." Beth replied with a small grin. She could relate to Annie more than the other woman could know.

They drove for hours, through the night and well into the next day. They got lucky and managed to siphon a half tank of gas from a UPS van so they didn't have to abandon the car and go on foot. They were also thankful for the packet of stale chips they had found in the foot well.

That night they camped out in the car after not passing anything for miles on the winding country road they had pulled onto. It wasn't comfortable and Beth woke with an awful crick in her neck, feeling more exhausted than when she had gone to sleep.

"We've gotta find a place today." Beth decided once they were back on the road.

"I'd trade bullets for a night in an actual bed." Noah complained. After sleeping on the cold hard floor beneath Beth's bed for weeks then a couple of measly hours scrunched in a car seat he was ready for a full and comfortable nights rest.

"I just want a wash." Annie confided, she had been mostly quiet since their escape. "I can still smell walker on my clothes. In fact something other than these scrubs would be great." She added after looking down at the stained blue fabric.

"We'll find somewhere today and then rest up for a day or two. Hopefully we'll find a map somewhere and can figure out where we are and where we go from here." Beth bit at the inside of her lip as she tried to work out how to ask Annie her next question. "Annie, were you with anyone before you got taken?" She asked gently.

"No. My Mom had just died when they took me. That was almost a year ago now. I don't have anyone else left." Annie replied quietly a look of intense pain passing across her face.

"I'm so sorry Annie."

"Everyone that's alive today has lost someone, most people have lost everyone. I've had time to come to terms with it." Annie shrugged and sighed. "Sometimes it's a relief, I don't worry about anything anymore."

Neither of them knew what to say to that so they let the car drift into silence.

A couple of hours later Noah spotted a promising looking side road and the trio took it cautiously. The road, more of a track, led to a dishevelled looking one story house enclosed in a bare yard. Beth parked outside the yard and glanced around before opening the door and slowly stepping out.

Beth was surprised to find that she was nervous. It was the first time she'd been out on the road for weeks and before that she'd only been out there a short time with Daryl. Everything felt so different that when she'd been alone with Daryl. He had taken the lead and she knew she could rely on him to keep her safe. Now she didn't have that, she was leading now and there wasn't the safety net that there had been with Daryl.

Annie and Noah got out of the car and drew their knives. Beth handed one of the empty guns to Noah and kept the other herself.

"Good idea." Noah commented as he put the gun in his waistband.

Beth ran her knife along the chain links in the fence and after a few tense moments a walker ambled from behind the house, one of its arms hung limp at its side while the other reached out towards them.

"I've got it." Beth said quietly as it got closer. When it was reaching over the fence Beth stepped forward and ended its second life. They waited another few minutes before opening the gate and entering the property. Beth flinched at the sound of metal scraping, louder than she had expected.

A walker appeared in one of the windows and snarled at them, clawing at the glass. When nothing else came from the back of the house the three friends quickly moved to the front door. Beth knocked sharply and waited. Nothing knocked back and apart from the walker in the window they couldn't hear anything else inside the house.

"I'll get the door, you ready?" Noah asked and Beth nodded.

The lounge was dirty but thankfully empty as was the kitchen beyond and Beth entered quickly, followed by Annie and then Noah. They kept quite, scanning the room and listening carefully. Wasting no time Beth walked to the door the walker from the window was now banging against.

"Annie?" Beth asked the other woman nodded, standing to the side and gripping the door handles firmly. She looked to Beth who nodded and then pulled the door open, holding her weight against the plywood to control the walkers exit.

Grabbing hands emerged first followed by the walker's head. It took Beth two attempts to make it past the flailing arms but within moments her knife was sticking out of the top of its head. Annie opened the door fully and the body dropped to the ground, revealing the room behind.

The bedroom was a mess, trash scattered across every surface as well as clothes and shoes and the wave of stench that hit them made both women gag. What captured Beth's attention was worse still than the smell. A large chest of drawers had a walker pinned to the floor, it tried to claw itself away and with the smell of fresh meat it became desperate, tearing the flesh of its stomach.

As Beth was about to step forward Annie took her arm and shook her head. Beth nodded unsurely and stepped back. Annie walked to the lively corpse carefully before bending down and confidently pushing her blade into the walkers skull. She let out a shuddering breath as she retrieved her knife.

"Good job." Beth said with a smile. Annie smiled back weakly and headed for the door.

Back in the living room Noah and Annie were gathered by another door leading off the space. She watched as Annie knocked and Noah pulled the door open. They clearly found nothing there and she joined them to check on the last door, the bathroom.

The bathroom was empty too and when Beth turned on the rusted faucet she was pleased to see water sputter out, even if it was a little cloudy. The three shared a quick smile, the clearing had been a success and they even had running water, which Annie was particularly happy about.

"Let's go see what we can find, there's still a lot of daylight left." Beth commanded, knowing that it was her job to keep them active.

It went unspoken in their little group that Beth was the one in charge, if it weren't for her arrival at the hospital Annie and Noah would probably still be there. She had inspired them to escape and she was showing them with each passing second what a survivor she was. Beth didn't know how far her new friends would already go to have her back, she wouldn't even need to ask, they would do almost anything for the woman who had helped them claim their freedom.

A/N Just a quick one, I hope you're all enjoying the story so far and I wanted to say a quick thanks to the people who reviewed. I feel like you should know that when I'm sat at my desk at work and get a review alert (Or any alert!) you make my day a whole lot less shitty, so thanks for that! :)


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four – Daryl

Daryl was angry and feeling reckless. He crawled across the floor to the stepladder placed beneath the hatch to the roof with thoughts of killing all the bastards out there. His blood felt hot he was so angry, he was sick of things getting in the way of finding Beth.

"When they stop shooting go out the back." He shouted at Rick as he passed him over the roaring gunshots that peppered the building. From what Daryl could tell they were being shot at from all sides.

"What're you gunna a do?" Rick asked but Daryl was already moving away and didn't answer.

Rick swore under his breath before repeating Daryl's instructions to Michonne, following after Daryl.

There was no break in the firing for Daryl to make his move and after a few moments of hesitation he sprang up the ladder, slipping easily through the hatch to press himself into the rough surface of the roof. He stayed that way as he pulled himself to the edge, amazed he had avoided being shot. He was amazed all over again when Rick appeared next to him equally unscathed.

Daryl didn't even have to tell Rick his plan, the bearded man was already heading to a different ledge to Daryl after a brief nod of understanding. Both men knew they would have to be fast, they would only have the element of surprise for a few moments before the men reacted to being shot at.

Daryl could see five men on his side and figured Rick would have around the same on his. Even with them both being the good shots they were, it was a big ask. Daryl checked the barrel on his gun and pulled out the loose bullets he seemed to constantly have in his pockets before glancing at Rick to find him looking right at him. The two men nodded at each other again before turning and beginning to fire without hesitation.

Two men had dropped dead by Daryl's hand before the others even knew what was happening. A third dropped before Daryl had to pull back from the ledge to keep from being shot. He rolled to his right about six feet before popping back up to his elbows and killing the fourth. He left the other who had scuttled behind a burnt out car and crawled to another side of the building. The men there seemed unaware of their comrades' death, which made killing the three of them easy.

Rick had done well too, killing a total of eight men. Unfortunately a further four had managed to duck behind shelter. Rick crawled to the back of the store and saw their group emerging carefully. His heart jumped into his throat as he watched Carol step out in the middle of the group, holding Judith tight to her chest.

"Go, straight through the woods, we can loose them in there." He whispered to the assembled people. "Come on, we have to go Daryl."

Daryl nodded once even though he was eager to finish off the arseholes that had open fired on an innocent group of people without even approaching them. Rick and Daryl got off the roof quickly, hanging from the ledge then dropping the remaining distance into a roll.

They sprinted after their group as they heard shouts from behind them, the five remaining attackers had obviously noticed they were no longer being shot at and the store was now empty. They didn't care about the store, Daryl wasn't sure if they ever had, now they were after revenge and he knew it made them more dangerous.

It was only a matter of moments before the relative quiet was once again shattered by a hailstorm of bullets. The group had no choice but to keep running and pray to any Gods they might still believe in.

Before they caught up with the others Rick ducked behind one tree and Daryl another before turning to return fire on the murderers. A scream ripped through the air in the direction the group had gone. Daryl didn't turn to see who had been hit, instead he fired three shots in quick succession. Two of the shots met their mark, one hitting a balding man in the face and the other going straight through another mans shoulder. He screamed and sank to his knees, dropping his gun.

Almost simultaneously there were two more screams from behind them, one of them was definitely that of a teenage boy. Like Daryl had seen before with the claimers, Rick lost it. He stepped out with a roar, he threw his gun down and surged forward with his knife. Daryl rushed to back him up, charging forward with his gun raised and knife drawn.

Daryl didn't have to fire a single shot. By the time he got close enough to help Rick was pulling his knife across the throat of the last shooter. With the men dead the forest was quieter than it had been before. The living didn't think that it was quiet enough for them.

Groans and snarls echoed in the forest around them while their injured moaned along with them. Rick had raced to his sons side and inspected the wound with a look of dismay. There was a clean entry and exit wound in his upper left arm, which he cradled to his chest.

Tara had a hand pressed to her side but when she pulled her top away Daryl saw the bullet had just grazed her. It'd hurt like a bitch but she'd be ok in a couple of days. Rosita had been shot clean through her thigh and it looked like the bullet had fragmented in her leg. She bit her lip so hard she drew blood.

With Rick looking lost and the rest of the group Daryl scanned the area and desperately tried to think of a plan.

"The men." He declared. "They came in a van, we can maybe find their camp, fix up our people."

Abraham scooped Rosita up into his arms and she tried her best not to cry out. Rick was helping Carl onto his feet, still seeming dazed. Tara managed to stand on her own but Glenn didn't stray far from her side.

"This way." Daryl set off through the trees, trying to avoid the largest groups of walkers. He shot two walkers before putting the gun away to save the bullets, he wanted the biggest part of the herd to be lead to that spot, away from the bike shop.

If it hadn't been for the dense forest they might not have made it through the horde that had gathered. As it was the close positioning of the trees had ensured that the walkers were spread out, easier to confront and to evade.

"We go through the shop, grab what we can as we run and then straight out through the front to the truck, you can't miss it." Daryl barked as they approached the end of the trees.

They were confronted with a lot of walkers spilling from either side of the building but as Daryl had anticipated the back was clear. They raced across the grass with Daryl and Carol waiting until everyone was inside safe before going in themselves and slamming the door shut after.

Daryl hadn't been kidding and as the group skidded through the shop they desperately grabbed whatever bags, weapons and belongings they knew belonged to the group. There wasn't much.

Daryl felt a rush of relief when he scooped his crossbow from the floor along with his bolts. He pushed to the front of the group who already had the front door open and were fighting their way to the trucks.

Tara was fighting and Carl stood with his knife in hand but no energy to use it. Abe had put down Rosita and she stood with all her weight on her good leg. She wavered where she stood, looking almost grey. Sweat poured off of her from the effort of staying on her feet. Carl stood beside her looking just as ashen and helped her keep edging forward while the group formed a protective circle around them.

Michonne was lethal with her katana and between her, Daryl and Rick, the three of them pushed forward quickly and got Carl and Rosita loaded into the back of the truck.

Glenn faltered as he had two walkers baring down on him at once, he took out one by pushing his knife into the side of its head and pushing the corpse into the walker beside it. It went down with the dead walker on top of it and in the struggle, Glenn was pulled down with it. The walker went to bite into his calf when Maggie plunged her knife into its skull.

She pulled Glenn up and he didn't get to say thank you as they were confronted with more walkers. A quick glance back told them it was their turn to get into the truck so they turned and ran the last few feet to the back of the truck, jumping in and pulling the doors closed not a moment too soon.

Once they were out of immediate danger Rosita let the tears pour, alternating between crying and cursing in fast Spanish. Bob was inspecting her leg through her jeans, trying to be as gentle as possible.

"Cut these jeans off for me." Bob demanded, looking around for some water to clean up the wound.

Carol and Rick were crowding around Carl who had silent tears streaming down his face, but he refused to make a sound. Daryl put his foot down, trying to avoid the walkers in the road.

"Jesus Christ Daryl! Keep it steady!" Maggie yelled at him.

"Fuckin how?" Daryl yelled back.

He tried blocking out the sounds of the others as he drove. It was too much hearing the panic and pain. They had come close to loosing three members of their group, in fact they still might loose someone.

With Rick preoccupied with Carl it was up to Daryl to decide their next move. It was obvious they needed to cover some ground and get away from the newly formed herd, but what they really needed was somewhere to tend to their wounded.

"Just hang on, I'll find us somewhere aight'" Daryl promised the others, trying to sound calm.

"Please hurry." Tara said quietly, putting pressure on her side, which was bleeding heavily again, the wound worse from her fighting.

Daryl drove for ten minutes until he saw a few houses up ahead. He pulled into the driveway of a house that still looked securable.

"Glenn, Sasha, Tyreese. With me." He said, stepping out of the cab.

Together they cleared and secured the house as the others brought in the injured. Rosita had gone quiet, which didn't seem like a good thing to Daryl and she was placed on the dining room table.

"Tara and Carl's wounds need cleaning, then they're both going to need stitches. I've got to get Rosita stable so someone else is going to have to help them." Bob directed

Rick led the way for Tara and Carl to be taken into another room to give Bob space. Daryl clapped his hand to Ricks shoulder as he passed but remained where he was by the door.

"What do you need?" Daryl grunted to the ex army doctor.

"More than you can get me." He grunted back. "But I'll settle for clean water, towels and some sterilised needle and thread, the others will need it too."

Daryl nodded once before heading into the kitchen to see if they had running water. The houses were pretty remote so Daryl hoped there would be a well. He saw Sasha in the corridor and sent her to the bathroom to find towels, adding on any first aid items she could find.

In the kitchen he found that there was running water but it came through as a brown slime at first. He left them running and looted the cupboards for pots and pans. The oven and hob ran on gas and again, Daryl hoped that the houses were far enough out to have gas cans. He tested it and found he was right.

Soon he had water boiling and Sasha had delivered clean towels to Bob, Rick and Maggie who were trying to patch up the injured. Soon though Bob was asking for tweezers. Daryl, Tyreese, Sasha, Carol and Eugene all scoured the house but couldn't find any.

"We're going to have to look in the other houses, someone's got to have had some." Carol said after emptying out the kitchen drawers on the floor.

"Ok, we spilt in two groups and take a house each, come back here after, if we still haven't found any we'll go out again." Daryl instructed.

Leaving Glenn to inform Rick of what was happening and keep watch the rest of them headed out into the mid late morning sun.

Eugene hadn't complained at being dragged outside but he stuck to Daryl like glue. He wasn't stupid, Daryl was the best survivor in the group, he was safest next to him.

The other three went off to a different house and Eugene suddenly didn't feel so confident, after all the saying is 'safety in numbers'.

"Get the door." Daryl grunted.

Eugene was shaking as he tapped on the door. Daryl huffed in frustration before stepping forward and knocking loudly. Something hit the back of the door and Eugene jumped.

"Ok, open it slow." Daryl instructed, holding his knife firmly. He plunged the knife confidently into the walkers skull and quickly withdrew it as a second walker began to push the first out of the way. It was killed just as quickly.

The rest of the house was quiet as the two men stepped inside. Daryl scanned the hallway, taking in important details, on the look out for any movement or something that could be useful.

"You check down here, I'm going upstairs." Daryl said quietly and Eugene blanched.

"Negative. Our chances of survival increase if we stay together." He rambled with a stutter.

"Eugene so help me God I'm gonna beat on you so hard I'll smack that damn mullet right off your damn head." He growled before striding to the bottom of the stairs. Eugene didn't dare follow him and instead he headed for the kitchen.

Daryl tried to stay silent as he walked up the stairs but they creaked with his every step and the sound made him cringe. When he was halfway up the stairs he could hear the unmistakable sounds of a trapped walker and he hurried up the last few steps.

He listened at the door for a few moments before deciding there was only one and pulling the door open. The walker was a young teenage boy, bearing a remarkable resemblance to Carl. Daryl's eyes narrowed, feeling like God was making fun of him. In minutes the walker was dead and Daryl had found the pair of tweezers he needed as well as a couple of candy bars and some cigarettes that had been stashed underneath the mattress.

He went back downstairs to Eugene who was packing a bag with food. The scientist looked up briefly.

"It's not been touched, we'll have to come back." Daryl nodded once.

"I've got the tweezers, grab what you can and lets go. We can come back once Bob has these."

They returned to the rest of their group, noting there were a few more walkers than before. Daryl took them out quickly with his crossbow, barely stopping to take the shots.

"Did you find some?" Bob asked when they entered the kitchen.

"Here." Daryl handed them to Bob who dropped them into the boiling water Abe offered.

"We can't risk infection more than we already are. And when I've taken the bullet fragments out someone's going to have to stich her up." Bob explained. "We don't know Rosita's blood type and she needs a transfusion, I'm the only O- here besides Tara and she can't spare any."

"What else can I do?" Daryl asked.

"I need more hot water, and so do the others." Bob replied.

"I'll get it." Eugene volunteered, eager to leave the room with a deathly looking Rosita who was so pale she looked like one of the undead.

"Are the others back?" Daryl asked Glenn who had just looked round the kitchen door.

"No. We've got more walkers." He said bitterly.

"Fuck sake." Daryl growled, once again pulling his knife, he was starting to wonder why he even bothered to put it away anymore.

In the end it took everyone that was able to clear the walkers, with Tyreese, Sasha and Carol returning midway through the fight, all three of them already covered in grime and walker blood.

"We ran into some trouble in the house we searched." Carol panted after the last walkers hit the floor. "Didn't find any tweezers."

"I did, Bob has them." Daryl said.

"How are they?" Carol asked.

"Alive." Daryl grunted. "There's gotta be more we can do."

Most of the group stayed outside to avoid crowding the injured and to keep watch for any roamers that may have been attracted to them from all the fighting. Daryl, Carol and Glenn went to see the injured and find out what more they could do.

"Daryl, thank God." Bob exclaimed when they walked into the kitchen. "I have to get blood into Rosita soon or we're going to loose her. I need needles and a long thin tube, something flexible."

"Where the fuck we gunna find that?" Daryl asked desperately.

"Tear through the fucking houses!" Abe demanded, his face was flushed and his veins popped.

"It doesn't have to be medical shit. I can improvise." Bob interjected, trying to avoid the argument threatening to engulf them.

"There was a fish tank in the house we sacked, think I saw something you could use as a tube in the cabinet underneath, it was still in the wrapper." Carol suggested, also looking to move passed the awkward tension.

"That sounds perfect."

"I'll go find something for a needle." Daryl said. "You'll need two?" He checked.

"Yeah. There's nothing here, Abraham and Eugene have checked. You have to be quick." With that he turned back to Rosita and fished the last piece of bullet fragment from her leg.

"I will be coming with you Dixon." Eugene Stated. "I can determine what will work."

"Aight, come on then." He left the room quickly and rushed in to see if Carl needed anything, figuring Tara would be ok after she'd been stitched up.

"Rick." Daryl announced as he stepped into the room.

"How's Rosita?" He asked, exhausted.

"Hanging on, we're going out to find some shit to help her. Need anything for Carl?" He asked hurriedly.

"No, we've made a splint from a ruler."

"He doing ok?" Daryl asked, looking at the sleeping boy.

"Yeah. Just passed out when we set the bone back. He'll need some pain killers when he comes round. He needed them before but said he didn't want anyone going out there for him, said he could take the pain." Rick's voice was flat as he spoke, as if he were sleep talking.

"Tough kid. I'll keep my eyes open." Daryl promised before striding out of the room.

Carol took Glenn, Sasha and Tyreese back to the house they had just come back from to get the pipe she had seen. Once again Daryl was going alone with Eugene.

They ran through the overgrown yards and Daryl cleared the house quickly, telling Eugene to stay back as he would only get in the way. There was a greater sense of urgency this time as the two men tore through the house. Eugene even refrained from complaining when Daryl sent him upstairs alone.

Daryl had grabbed some thin blue straws from the cutlery drawer, he recognised them as the straws from those florescent juice pots that kids got high on. He'd used to steal them from the local gas station with Merle when they were kids.

He met Eugene out in the hall, he was carrying a few pens in his fist but looking hopefully at Daryl to produce something better.

"These are all I found." Daryl said, handing over one of the straws for Eugene to inspect.

"They're not ideal, but better than the pens I found. They could work." He nodded with an air of finality and they left the house.

As the safe house appeared they saw Abraham running towards them.

"You find anything?" He asked. Daryl sped up, not stopping as he reached Abe who turned and ran with him.

"Yeah. Eugene says it could work, they're not needles though."

"Whatever you've got man. He pulse is dropping." Daryl nodded and the two men pushed even harder, taking the porch steps in one long stride.

"I can work with these." Bob said when Daryl thrust the straws at him. "Glenn, pass me the electrical tape."

Bob rigged up the makeshift drip and quickly punctured his arm with the straw. The tube filled up slowly, it felt like half an hour had passed but in reality it had only been a couple of minutes.

"Have to make sure there's no air in the tube or straw." Bob explained, noting the impatient looks on their faces. "She'll die if there is." That effectively shut up any whining from the onlookers.

Bob carefully pushed the other makeshift needle into Rosita's arm, Glenn walked over when Bob motioned for him.

"Sasha, I need you to hold the straw in her arm." Bob asked, taking Sasha by surprise. "Glenn's going to massage the tube, pulling blood from me and pushing it into her, you don't have to press hard, just make sure it's secure." Sasha nodded at his directions and held Rosita's arm firmly.

Bob did the same to his own and Glenn lightly squeezed near the top of the tube and gently pulled down, repeating the action.

"Is it working?" Glenn asked nervously.

"Yeah, you're doing fine." Bob said, clenching and unclenching his fist to increase the blood flow. "God this hurts a lot more than a normal donation."

Daryl thought having a straw sticking inside you instead of a nice thin needle was probably bound to hurt more, but he refrained from sharing that particular thought.

Deeming he had done all he could to help their most critical patient he went to check on Tara, who he hadn't seen yet. He knocked lightly before entering, not wanting to catch Tara topless or anything.

"Hi." Tara smiled weakly from her place on the bed, he was lying on her good side with three pillows supporting her. She was pale, almost grey, and she looked exhausted. "How's Rosita?"

"Bob's giving her blood, had to rig a line with bits from a fish tank and two straws."

"Shit." Tara gasped.

"Yeah. He says it'll work though. How're you holding up?" He asked.

"Hurts like a bitch and I'm the most drunk I've been for the whole apocalypse. Blood loss." She answered happily at his questioning look.

"I've stitched her up and wrapped it, but she can't move for a couple of days as least. The stitches will tear and she'll bleed again." Maggie told him. "How's Carl?" She asked.

Daryl knew her thinking had gone to who would be making the call to stay or move on. When she asked how Carl was she was also asking how Rick was.

"He's asleep. In a lot of pain, his arms broken but they've made him a splint and wrapped it I think. We stay here today and tonight, come up with a game plan together tomorrow morning." Daryl decided, remembering the vacant look on his brothers face as he stared at his child.

"Thank God you're here Daryl." Maggie said quietly. Daryl nearly choked on his next words, they made him feel sick just saying them.

"I won't be going nowhere, not now at least." He said quietly, not abandoning his search for Beth, but storing it for the time being so he could protect their family, after all Beth would kill him if he didn't.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Hey everyone! Just a quick one to say thank you for all your faves, follows and reviews, they make me happy! Also I'm really sorry that it's taken so long to get this chapter out, with the holiday season and house hunting I've been a tad preoccupied. Also this chapter is 10'000 words. I'm dyslexic. I also second guess every other word I write. Editing was a bitch.**

Chapter Five – Beth

Beth was happy with what they had found in the house. She knew the others weren't impressed but she knew how scarce food could be. Most places had been picked clean and she had done a lot more for a lot less during her other times on the road.

A couple of cans of soda, mac n cheese boxes, some canned vegetables and half a packet of porridge. That was all the food they found that was still fit to eat. Obviously the people who had lived here before were simple folk if Beth were to put it politely.

"This'll do for tonight. We'll stay here but we need to set up some fences and we should keep a watch." Beth said confidently, she'd had plenty of time to perfect her survival strategies during those long weeks at Grady. "We'll all be staying in here, it's best not to split up just in case."

"Ok." Noah agreed. "I'll go grab some bedding and pillows from the clean bedroom."

"I'll go lift that dresser off the walker and see if anything can be salvaged, we're going to need some more clothes." Beth declared.

"I'll help you." Annie offered, eager to show she wanted to help. She was still painfully aware she was the outsider in the group.

"Thanks." Beth offered the woman a smile and once again the trio were busy.

Soon though they were done for the day. With nowhere nearby to raid there wasn't really much that could be done until the morning and really, they all needed the break.

Beth found herself stood in front of a mirror for the first time in a long while. There hadn't been one in her room at the hospital and she had purposefully avoided it when she had gone to the bathroom. In the house's small bathroom though she took a good long look at herself.

 _I'm a killer now_ , she thought to herself. _Is this what a killer looks like?_

Taking in the bruises, wrinkles in her forehead and the scar on her cheek, she guessed she sort of did. She also really needed a wash. A layer of dirt covered her, splashed with the dried blood of the two people she had killed and the black ooze of walkers. Yes, she looked like a killer.

Beth went to retrieve some clothes and a towel so she could take a cold shower, desperate to try wash away the melancholy mood she'd put herself in. She stopped when she saw the smiles on Noah and Annie's faces.

"Noah found the mother load." Annie declared.

"What?" Asked Beth curiously.

"Camping gear! Not to mention the fishing gear I found in the shed and this bad boy!" Noah exclaimed pulling a compact bow from behind his back.

Beth felt like she had been punched in the gut. It was such a stark reminder of Daryl. The bow was obviously different from his crossbow but the similarities were enough to make Beth falter. The same black metal and sturdy string, though the bow looked lighter.

She held her hand out for it silently, shaking a little.

Noah handed it over without saying a word. One night, back in the hospital while Noah had been lying on the floor beneath Beth's bed she had begun to tell him of a man she knew who had been teaching her to shoot a crossbow. She had stopped abruptly, mid sentence in fact and changed the subject without explanation. They had still been getting to know each other properly at the time and Noah hadn't wanted to push.

The bow was light in her hands as she expected, but solid and sturdy. Noah took an arrow from the quiver and passed it to her. She placed the arrow to the string experimentally and drew it back to her cheek. Thinking back to her lessons with Daryl she relaxed her shoulders, aimed and then let the arrow fly. She had been aiming for a poster on the door to the clean bedroom. She missed by about an inch.

"I think I could use this." Beth said quietly. "At least I can load this one myself." She said to a man who wasn't there, the ghost of a sad smile playing on her lips.

She shook off her depressing mood and mustered up a proper smile for Noah.

"This is great Noah. Annie was right, you found the mother load." She even managed a grin. "Come on, show me what else ya got." She demanded, determined to be excited about the haul.

Flash lights, a camping stove, sleeping bags and an incomplete outdoors first aid kit were added to their collection. There was one thing that turned her stomach though; a bone saw, one of those wire ones, sharp as a knife and serrated. One of her biggest fears was losing a limb like her Daddy had. She had never thought he was braver when he survived losing his leg, well, until the Governor had killed him.

Angry for once again dragging a bad mood upon herself Beth went to take her shower. _Hopefully it'll help me tug my head outta my ass,_ she thought bitterly.

The shower had actually helped even if it had been freezing and after the others returned from theirs all three of them seemed a little lighter, and more tired than before.

"You guys rest, I'll take first watch." Beth said after a meal of mac n cheese and a couple of stale crackers.

"Beth." Noah said stubbornly. "Please stop. You don't have to do everything, you know you don't. Let me take first watch, you drove all the way from the hospital." Noah demanded, grinning smugly when she yawned.

"Fine. But wake me for my watch in a couple of hours." She instructed.

"No." Annie said resolutely. "He'll wake _me_ in a couple of hours. You can take your watch after that ok?"

"Well if yall are ganging up on me, I guess I'll catch some sleep." She replied with a grateful smile.

The truth was she was bone weary. Beneath that, she was terrified. Beth had made a silent pact with herself the day before to not let the other two see her fear. Beth was trying to show them that she was strong and that she could be trusted to look out for them, she was determined to do that. In reality she hated being on the road, it wasn't the absence of walls or fences to keep her safe that bothered. It was that she didn't have any to head back to, nowhere to call home. It kicked her fear level up a good few notches and put her on edge.

Even though she had been part of strong group, true survivors, she had always felt like she wasn't in the same league as the rest of them. She had been protected a lot, first by her kin and then by the adoptive family no one had agreed to be in but that had ended up that way just the same. Sure she knew the basics to survive, she had listened at the prison and watched while they were on the road before. If it hadn't been for Daryl there was a good chance she would have died after the prison but now, with what he had taught her, she felt like she might actually be able to survive this. She might even be able to help a few others do the same.

It was a nice thought to fall asleep to.

She woke up to the bright morning sun streaming through the windows and she blinked, not expecting the light. Annie was still sat by the window, diligently watching the drive.

"Annie." Beth said exasperatedly. "You were supposed to wake me."

"Sorry Beth." Annie said, chastised. "You were just so peaceful and I couldn't even think about sleeping." She said with a sad smile and went back to looking out of the window.

Beth felt like a class A bitch. Now that she had woken up properly she could see the red rings around Annie's eyes and her fingernails that she had bitten down to the wick.

"Nightmares?" She asked softly, sending a quick glance at Noah's still sleeping form.

"Yeah." Annie said, again softly.

"I'm so sorry Annie." Beth's heart was breaking, a sudden wave of guilt hitting her in the gut.

"S'not your fault." She shrugged.

"No. I know I can't apologise to you for the things you went through." Annie looked up curiously. "I'm sorry for almost leaving you behind Annie. We'd spoken about it and we didn't think anyone else had the fight left to make it out. I am so happy we were wrong." Beth confided. "I think I'll feel guilty about the ones we left behind for the rest of my life but I am so glad you're here with us."

Annie lunged forward and grabbed Beth into a tight hug, sniffing in an attempt to keep her tears away. In Annie's opinion Noah and Beth had swept in like angels to save her. Magnificent and formidable avenging angels. They would never know how much she loved them already.

"Well I'm glad to be here." Annie laughed a little as she pulled away. "We should wake Noah and head out."

"No, sleep for an hour or two. I've stuff to do around here so I'll keep watch." Beth said then quieted Annie's protests with a raised eyebrow until Annie huffed and settled into a comfier spot to try sleep.

Beth grabbed her new bow and spent the next hour checking the immediate area around the property. After that she started practising. After an hour her arms were aching but she'd made progress. Working with the bow was a lot different to Daryl's crossbow. Beth decided it took a gentler hand yet a good deal of endurance. After her hour practise she felt focussed and very stiff in her shoulders.

After a final check round the fence she made a start on breakfast. Noah woke up around then and helped her cook up a small amount of porridge, following Beth's strict rationing instructions.

"Hey Annie." Noah whispered as he crouched beside the sleeping woman. He reached out and shook her shoulder gently. "Time to get up."

Annie woke up quickly. _Most people do nowadays_ , Beth thought to herself.

"Morning." She said sleepily, stretching out with a smile. "How long did I sleep?"

"Couple of hours." Beth answered from her spot near the stove they had set up.

"And is that breakfast?"

"Sure is. There's not much of it though, we have to find food today." Beth said, her voice turning serious.

Beth dished out breakfast while Noah and Annie cleared the table and grabbed some silver wear. Before long the trio sat with small bowls of steaming oats in front of them with a jar of honey on the side, a rare treat.

"Ok guys, I've come up with a plan for today." Beth opened, leaving a few seconds for either of them to interrupt. It was Beth's way of giving them a chance to assert their own authority, she didn't think they would but after that point she would be assuming that she was in charge, her mind already set. "We need food. I think we have enough supplies but it's nothing that we can eat." She said bluntly. "We also need to find a map and figure out where we are. Knowing the lay of the land will help us if we ever need to leave here in a hurry, we need a place we can meet if we get separated for whatever reason."

Thoughts of meeting spots and back up plans had haunted her since the prison fell, she would learn from her past mistakes.

"That sounds like a good plan." Noah said with a smile. He was relieved that Beth was taking charge.

"Good." Beth smiled back. "We'll check around the house first, hide the car before we go out. I went down the track some and saw a smaller one branching off, we could go that way and see what we find. We don't even have to find buildings or whatever, I can hunt just fine and Georgia is a bountiful state." Beth grinned, trying to lift the spirits of her companions. After all, that's what she had always done, why did that have to change now she was in charge?

Hours later and the trio had passed through trees, dropped down into a small valley and climbed up the other side to come upon another break in the trees. When Annie and Noah didn't slow as they approached the treeline Beth whistled low and shook her head when they turned to look at her. Beth took point and hid behind a tree a few feet from the treeline.

Peering out into the open Beth could see five walkers milling around what she hoped was a field of crops, what it was she couldn't tell. Personally, she hoped for corn. Holding her knife a little tighter Beth whistled again, louder than before.

The sound slowly gained the attention of the un-dead and they began to amble towards the woods. Noah and Annie rocked on their heels, eager to get out there but Beth held up her hand, telling them to wait.

Only when the first walker was right beside the tree she was concealed behind did she step out, confidently striking the tall mans skull. Once again Annie and Noah caught on quickly, following her lead of taking out the walkers before they could spot them.

"Farmers." Beth commented as they looked down at the five walkers, finally at peace. Her heart pounded in her chest from the fight, still along way from dispatching walkers without breaking a sweat like Maggie and Michonne.

"Think we found a farm?" Noah asked; peering through the trees, making sure nothing had been drawn in by the scuffle.

"I think that's a good bet." Beth agreed.

Quietly the young woman walked to the tree line before scanning the field beyond. Corn. To Beth, it looked like heaven. She quickly made sure there were no remaining walkers and rushed over to the edge of the crop.

She was a little disappointed. The plants had once been a crop but now they had reverted back to the wild. They weren't in uniformed lines; insects or weather damage had ruined many. Still, Beth could see a few husks that could be saved.

"Awesome." Annie said quietly with a smile.

"Yep." Beth replied, cutting the husks of corn from the stem and stashing them in her pack.

"Here, let me take some too." Annie offered, holding her own pack open for Beth.

"Good idea, if we loose one pack we don't loose everything." Beth complimented.

"I just thought I'd take my share of the weight." Annie laughed with a blush.

"Thanks." Beth said kindly.

Beth smiled and passed a few husks to Noah to pack away. "I'm going to climb that tree there and see what's past this field."

From her position up the tree Beth could see way past the field to the ruined farm buildings beyond. Past those she could see two dirt tracks leading from the front of the farm. More fields, strange patches of burned land and copses of trees, but none of that really registered with Beth, she was too busy watching the small herd of walkers slowly crashing through the otherwise empty landscape.

She climbed down with much more care than she had climbed up and held her finger to her lips. Once she was back on the ground she started back into the woods, gesturing for the others to follow. They forged through the woods quickly, not stopping for at least half an hour.

"There was a herd." Beth said finally, panting heavily.

"Oh my God." Annie gasped.

"It's ok." Beth reassured her. "It was a small herd and they didn't know we were there. Don't dwell on it. We'll head North before cutting back towards the house, we should hit a track that'll take us home."

"Let's go then." Noah said, suddenly anxious to return to the house.

"Drink first." Beth commanded, holding out a bottle of water.

They travelled on with a renewed energy, eager to put some distance between them and the herd. As she scanned the ground for tracks Beth started telling them how to avoid large groups of walkers, sharing everything she had learnt. Before she knew it she was talking about her farm being overrun.

Once she started talking about her family, she couldn't stop. She went back to the beginning and described the chaotic arrival of Rick's group and the months that followed on the farm. After that she had to stop as they came across a couple of walkers in a clearing. The walkers were taken down quickly with arrows from Beth's bow.

After searching the walkers and recovering a knife and single energy bar that still looked edible they continued on, Annie and Noah looked at Beth expectantly. So She started once again, losing herself in the silence of the forest and stories from her winter on the road.

By the time they had reached the track she had told them all about the Prison, Judith's birth and Lori's death, how she cared for the baby and even a little about Zach. She stopped at the tree line and sighed.

"That's when the Governor came back. He brought a fucking tank." She laughed humourlessly. "We weren't prepared to deal with that. We had to leave in a hurry. We had a plan for the kids, this old school bus. I was on it. I didn't have Judith with me though and so I left to go find her. I didn't manage it. The bus left and I managed to escape. With Daryl."

"The guy with the crossbow." Noah stated quietly.

"Yeah. We weren't good at first. I was heart broken, when the Governor attacked, he beheaded my Daddy, right in front of me and my sister." Annie gasped and Noah reached out and gripped her shoulder. "I'm ok. Still miss him like crazy but life has to go on. To cut a long story short one night Daryl and me got drunk on moonshine and burned a shack down. After that things were a lot better. And now I guess that's the end of my story, because not long after that I was taken and found myself in that damn hospital."

"Jesus Beth." Noah summarised for himself and Annie.

"I want to believe that my family is still out there, that my sister is alive. The truth is I just don't know." Beth felt her throat growing tighter but pushed through it. "But I once said something to Daryl. I told him he would be the last man standing and I meant it. There is no question that Daryl is alive, and I would bet my last bullet that he's looking for me."

"I'm sure he is Beth." Annie assured her.

"But he doesn't know where I am. He doesn't even have a trail to follow, I hope to God that he hasn't wound up at the hospital." Beth confided.

"Then we leave him some clues. Just your name or something, so he knows you're alive and not in Atlanta." Noah suggested, Annie nodding enthusiastically.

"I should have thought of that before." Beth scolded herself, eyebrows knitted in frustration.

"Well we can start now." Annie said confidently.

Noah volunteered to climb up one of the trees to see if he could scope out the surrounding area and Beth agreed, standing watch with Annie at its base. He climbed down after confirming the coast was clear and the trio stepped out into the sunshine.

"We'll stick close to the tree line in case we need to hide." Beth instructed and the others nodded, walking parallel to the track.

As it happened, they didn't have to take cover in the trees and didn't see much of anything until they spotted a car crashed in a ditch. There were no walkers around it but there was definitely one inside it, clawing at the windows half-heartedly.

"This aint gonna be pleasant." Beth warned grimly as she yanked open the door. The stench hit all three of them like a brick wall.

"Oh God." Annie groaned.

The walker collapsed out of the car, falling face down in the dirt. Beth couldn't help the look of pity on her face as she dropped to one knee and buried her knife in the back of its skull. She wrenched the knife out with a sigh and wiped the blade on the dead mans flannel shirt. There was an obvious bite mark on the man's shoulder.

"Wonder if he was part of the family whose house we're staying in." Annie mused. "Got so sick on the road home he crashed."

"Probably something like that." Beth commented. "Shouldn't dwell on it though, we got our own shit to deal with."

"Yeah. We should search the car?" Annie questioned.

"Definitely, don't think the car will ever run again but maybe we can salvage some gas." Beth confirmed. "I'll have to come back with a can and hose."

"We can't get into the trunk." Noah stated, the car had dislodged the banking on its way down and tons of dirt had sealed it shut.

"Really?" Beth asked with a sigh. She took a lungful of slightly fresher air before ducking into the car and pulling the middle seat forward, allowing access into the trunk. There was a gun, a backpack full of cash and a duffle bag with clothes, a few pictures and a few packets of pasta. There was also a small bag of pills, ecstasy if Beth were to make a guess.

She pulled her finds out and tossed all but the gun out behind her in silence. Finally out of the grim interior Beth took great big breaths.

"Well that was gross." She deadpanned. Noah nodded, looking a little sheepish and took a lungful of air as he had seen Beth do before he searched through the rest of the car. Annie opted to keep watch as Beth inspected her finds.

She dumped out the wads of cash from the backpack with a shaking head. _Look how much all this helped ya',_ She thought bitterly, wondering if the man had been bitten while he was trying to get his hands on the money she was currently emptying onto the side of the road.

Once the useful items had been transferred from the duffle bag into the backpack the three set off down the track, Beth instructing the others to stay close to the ditch so they could jump in if anything came their way.

The rest of the journey went by uneventfully. Beth took down a straggling walker with her bow, only needing two attempts to kill it. Annie surprised them by informing them that she could make a whole host of things with a couple of dandelion plants she had eagerly harvested from the middle of the track.

"My Grandma used to make this weird coffee stuff from the roots, said it helped with digestion." She explained with a slight laugh. "You can eat the whole thing, boil the leaves up into a soup, eat the flowers raw or make them into tea. Can't say it's the best flavour in the world but they're full of all that good crap you're supposed to eat."

"Well I never knew that." Noah said with a smile.

"My Daddy used to tell me about when he was a boy, he'd stay out in the Georgia wild all day playin' with his friends, said he used to pluck snacks right from the land. She really is a bountiful state. Maybe we could find a book or somethin' you know, to help us forage." Beth declared, finding the hope once again.

The house was exactly the same as the had left it but Beth still insisted on approaching cautiously, checking the house over as if it were their first time there.

"Leave the cooking to me." Annie volunteered when they were all gathered in the kitchen. "Didn't you say something about fences last night? I think I'd like knowing that the fence was a bit more secure you know?"

"Good idea. We'll make it work." Beth assured her. "I know I didn't manage to hunt us some fresh meat, think you can throw something together with what we've got?" Beth questioned.

"Please. I was a student, I can make a meal out of anything." Annie said with a grin.

That was how they spent the afternoon, Annie pottered around the kitchen, baking the dandelion roots to make some kind of coffee, Beth and Noah went to work reinforcing the fence, planting spikes in front of it to impale any walkers that threatened to put too much pressure on their only line of defence.

"It's not great but I think it'll be ok." Beth declared a while later, stretching the aches from her back and shoulders.

"Yeah, should stop the biters at least. People though… I don't think that this place is all that defensible." Noah confided.

"It's not." Agreed Beth. "And we can't make it any better. Not just the three of us with no heavy machinery or anything. This is just for now, somewhere to rest a little and get our heads straight."

"Annie's doing good." Noah commented after a few silent minutes. It was the first time they had been alone since the hospital, since they had decided to take Annie with them with really deciding anything.

"She is." Beth watched the older woman through the window thoughtfully. If it wasn't for the slightly scruffy look of the other woman Beth could imagine that the world was still alive. "Been through a lot though. I'm proud of how hard she's trying."

"I think she feels like she has to prove herself to us. Like if she doesn't then we'll leave her. But she trusts us, too much." He commented.

"We were there to help her get out back in Grady. She probably thought of nothing else in there but how she was going to get out, same as us. Now though, well she's not trapped is she? She's ok and she has people with her who can and will take care of her. Some stranger comes along though and I'd bet bullets that she'd be the least trusting of us." Beth assured him. She could already see the hardness in the other woman's eyes.

"I hope so." Noah sighed before walking back to the house.

It was maybe an hour later when all three of them were showered and sat happily around the kitchen table. Annie had served the not quite coffee and on the whole it had gone down well. It was different but it wasn't bad as such. Beth didn't think she would ever call an edible substance bad again after her winter on the road before the prison.

They went to bed early leaving Annie on watch; she woke both of them frantically sometime during the night. A group of about fourteen walkers had happened upon the house and they were pressing up against the fence. For Beth it was a painful reminder of the prison and she had to swallow a lump in her throat even as she pulled her knife.

"Watch what I do, let them press themselves against the fence, watch out for the arms and don't hesitate." Beth advised quietly, stepping out onto the grass.

It didn't take long to put down the walkers but Beth was worried about what might have been attracted by the sounds. Without hesitation Beth jumped the short fence and stabbed a corpse in its belly, making a long slit. She grabbed its arm and pulled it along the fence.

"Covers our scent." She threw out over her shoulder after catching Annie's horrified stare.

Noah copied her actions and a slightly green Annie started hacking at the pile of remaining walkers, slicing throats and stabbing thighs.

Twenty minutes later and they were all inside again, covered in blood and dirt but unscathed. Beth wouldn't hear of anyone but her taking the next watch and when Noah tried to argue with her she quieted him with a look of iron.

Beth kept her watch until the sun rose, moving through the house to silently peer through each window. Some stragglers had wandered to the house, perhaps drawn by the echoes of their fight. When nothing more grabbed their attention they either wandered off again or stood swaying lightly in the breeze.

Beth found it fascinating to watch the beasts when they weren't snapping at her hungrily. They were slow, bumbling and stupid. They looked harmless, almost brainless. But then another walker would stumble on a twig and as one the walkers would look up to it and then shuffle over to the sound.

When the sky first began to lighten Beth went to wake the others, then stopped herself. There was a little knot of worry in her stomach as she looked at her sleeping companions. _Is this what Rick feels when he looks at us? Is this how Daryl felt when he looked at me after the prison?_ Beth wondered to herself. She briefly considered leaving them sleeping in the house while she went out to deal with the walkers but in the end she couldn't do it. What if she got bit out there? She didn't want Annie and Noah to wake up to find her dead and a horde of walkers just beyond the fence.

"Hey." She said quietly, shaking Noah's shoulder lightly.

"Morning." He yawned. "Any more trouble?"

"Nah, nothing I can't handle. Gonna clear the couple that are out there, want to practise with the bow. Just wanted to let you know where I was going." She explained and stood up before he could argue.

"You sure?" He asked and she nodded, sending him a bright smile.

"I'll be fine, seen people do this before, I gotta learn." She said with a shrug, already at the back door.

She checked it was still clear before sliding outside soundlessly, holding her bow lightly. At the corner of the house she stopped to peer round to the front yard. There was a little tree and overgrown bush halfway between the house and the fence that would give her enough cover. When none of the walkers were looking she padded across the patchy grass. In the cover of the bush she froze, waiting to hear the groans and hissing that would tell her she had been spotted. They never came and a few minutes later she took her first shot, remembering everything from her practise the day before. Her arrow hit its mark and she stifled a smile, she hadn't finished yet.

The bow was silent and the only thing that seemed to grab the walkers' attention was their fellow corpses falling to the ground. With none of the un dead concerned with Beth at all she stepped cautiously out of her hiding place, firing arrows in quick succession. Most of her shots made it, only one going a little off and ending up lodged in the walkers shoulder. It crossed Beth's mind that at least she'd have done damage if her target were human.

Only when they were all put down did Noah open the front door with a tired looking Annie just behind him.

"Nice." He commented with a grin. "Think we might find another bow like that?"

"Hand's off, this is my new trademark." Beth joked, stretching out her muscles in the bright morning sunlight. Her joke backfired and plunged her back into the sadness of losing her family, losing Daryl.

"Should I make a start on breakfast? I'll make more tea." Annie offered.

"I'm not hungry, want to scout along the track back to the main road. You guys have something to eat and then maybe drag these walkers over to that ditch, we need to get them away from the house." Beth directed, the orders feeling foreign on her tongue.

"Sure. Not a problem." Annie assured her.

Beth looked at Noah for confirmation and he nodded once with a slight wrinkle on his brow. The command to be careful was clear. He passed Beth her pack from beside the door then placed a hand on Annie's shoulder to lead her gently back into the house, chatting casually.

With the long track stretching on in front of her Beth started an easy jog, aware that her muscles seemed to have shrunk with her time at Grady. There was no hope of gaining it back without a good supply of food and she made the decision that either today or tomorrow they would go on a run to the closest town. They had regained a little bit of their strength and found somewhere they could retreat to at night but before she could begin searching for her family they had to be strong. She was done with being weak.

It was a couple of miles to the road and Beth encountered walkers on the way, which slowed her down. Beth felt the need to hide the bodies as well. Walkers of course wouldn't care about a fresh walker corpse but other people? Well it was a sign there were other survivors in the area and that could be classed as both good and bad.

The woods were silent as she emerged finally onto cracked grey tarmac and for the first time in a long while she felt overwhelming fear. She was alone in a monster-infested forest. She had to fight the instinct to run back the way she had come, back out of the trees and onto the sun-soaked track that led to safety and other living people she knew she could trust.

After harsh words to herself, some that played in a voice very similar to Daryl's, Beth set off down the road with a determined stride. She carried on the way they had been traveling the other day when they had spotted the turning. She stayed close to the trees, acutely aware of her surroundings. She kept an arrow on the string just in case.

It was needed after Beth rounded a bend in the road to find a group of seven walkers feasting on a small doe they had cornered against the cliff face the road followed. They didn't notice when Beth came into view and with the element of surprise she took down four of the walkers before the other three became aware of the promise of fresh meat. She took down another before it reached her but then the one behind lurched and her arrow flew harmlessly over its head.

She was forced to pull her knife and back up a few steps as she pulled her bow over her shoulder. The remaining walkers were downed quickly though Beth was left gasping for breath, feeling like they had gotten far too close. _Gotta get better at this,_ she thought bitterly, wiping her knife clean on the shirt of the nearest walker.

Beth quickly searched the walkers, finding nothing but a knife and a set of house keys. For reasons unknown to Beth she pocketed the house keys along with her new knife.

Further down the road she saw a road sign for a place called Hartside, it was four miles away. She decided not to get too close on her own but it'd be good to check it out before she brought Noah and Annie all the way out there.

She followed the road for another two miles or so then struck off up the steep hill to her right. It was hard going but before long she was up high enough to see past the end of the woods and down into the little town still a few miles away.

It looked quite, there were a few tiny figures down in the streets, not doing very much of anything. The buildings were doing all right on the whole. There was a little fire damage and a lot of peeling paint and sagging wood but most of the buildings were still standing. There was a cluster of walkers at the far edge of town, swaying in the breeze and looking relatively docile. Beth's eyebrows wrinkled as she watched them but decided they were a necessary risk.

Beth didn't rush back to the road; instead she forced herself to observe the town for maybe an hour, carefully examining the buildings and roads, looking for any signs of living people. The last thing she wanted to do was lead Noah and Annie into trouble; she had to make sure they were prepared.

Once she made it down to the road again the sun was high in the sky, a while past noon and she knew she had to start heading back if she didn't want the others to start worrying. On her journey back she raided the few cars she had seen on the way, finding a small amount of food as well as half a packet of cigarettes. She packed her finds away and set off, setting a punishing pace for herself.

By the time she reached the turning for home her legs were burning and her chest had been tight for the past hour. Still she pushed on, only slowing to a walk when her calves started to cramp painfully. It felt good to be so active again, so painfully tired.

The sun was much lower by the time Beth saw the little house off in the distance and she felt a small swell of happiness inside. Home. It was apparently a much more complicated concept than Beth had originally believed. Noah and Annie were standing outside and when she appeared on the road, running towards them, they jumped into action, both vaulting the fence and running towards her.

Beth slowed to a walk and waved at them lightly, giving them a thumbs up. She could see the panic drain form their faces to be replaced with matching smiles as they slowed to a light jog.

"You've been gone ages, we were worried!" Annie exclaimed, giving her a bone-crushing hug.

"Come on Annie, let her breath." Noah chastised with a grin.

"Oh, like you weren't worried too!" Annie scoffed, pulling away from the bright red, slightly damp blonde.

"No need. I'm fine." She panted out, leaning over with hands braced on her knees. "God I think my lungs have exploded."

"Why're you running anyway?" Annie asked, hand already hovering over her knife.

"Had to. Was miles away and it was getting late. Didn't want you worrying about me. Didn't know if you'd follow me." She explained in brief, breathless sentences.

"Jeez, we could have waited. Let's get inside, have you eaten, have you drunk anything all day?" Annie demanded. Beth just looked up sheepishly.

"I was in the zone, sorta forgot." She shrugged helplessly and Annie tutted in a way that was far too mature for a woman her age.

Annie muttered for a long time about stubborn teenagers who'd forget to breathe if their bodies didn't do so automatically. Beth smiled a little at her, she reminded her a lot of Maggie, they weren't far off in age and a few of Annie's mannerisms screamed of her older sister.

Beth got cleaned up then ate with the others on the living room floor where they had placed cushions and taped up the windows so they could light candles safely. She recounted her entire day and then prepared them for their run into Hartsville the next morning. It would be a long day, even though they would be driving into town in case they needed a quick getaway. They went to bed early, extinguishing the candles and leaving Noah on watch.

On Beth's watch she slipped outside and sat on a rickety plastic chair under the awning. It was too quite in the house and she felt an uneasy need to hear the night time buzz. She was nervous about the run, haunted by thoughts of her family and sick with grief, she felt like she should be doing something. Anything.

With a frustrated sigh she pulled the packet of cigarettes from her jeans and a packet of matches she'd found in the kitchen. Pulling one out she inspected it, holding it experimentally between two fingers. She hesitated, almost putting it back in the packet but then, _why the hell not?_

There, underneath the awning, looking out into the clear Georgia night Beth Greene lit and smoked her first ever cigarette. She pushed back her fathers stern voice warning her of the dangers of smoking and focussed on the familiar smell, the warmth it brought to her chest as she inhaled the smoke down into her lungs. She guessed it might be relaxing, but that could just be the natural soundtrack playing around her. Halfway through she decided she was done and pushed the stub into the damp earth. She brought her fingers up to her face, purposefully not thinking too much about it Beth breathed in the smell of smoky cigarette butts. Before she could stop it her eyes had misted and her throat had closed up tight.

She angrily swallowed the sobs and marched out to check the perimeter before retreating back into the house, suddenly desperate to be near other people.

The next morning was another bright one and they'd had no unwelcome visits through the night so the group felt well rested and ready for the run, Beth pushing her own worries away to motivate the others. On the way back to the road they stopped at the track leading off to where they had found the wrecked car a few days before to try siphon off some gas. They only got about a quarter tank but Beth was tankful none the less.

On the main road they encountered a few wandering corpses but Beth didn't want to stop to kill them so they pressed on, reaching the town mid-morning. They stopped at the gas station just outside of town and Annie tried the pumps while Noah and Beth kept watch. It was empty of course but Beth had expected it and wasn't too disappointed.

"Just like at the house ok?" Beth asked as they stood at the door.

"We got it." Noah assured her, taking his place behind her, knife drawn.

She knocked once on the frame and stepped back, waiting for whatever was inside to collide with the door. She wasn't disappointed. Three walkers pushed on the door and at the last minute, her eyes widening Beth sprung forward to open it, jumping back just as fast.

They each took a walker down and then Beth was stepping into the store.

"What was that about?" Noah asked, "That wasn't like back at the house."

"I was fuckin stupid." Beth whispered harshly. "The glass was already cracked, they would have come straight through it, shattering the glass and bringing every walker in town down on us."

"Oh." He replied, not knowing what to say in the face of Beth's clear self-hatred.

"I'm sorry." She said through clenched teeth. "I should have seen it before."

"Hey, I didn't see it either." Noah tried to comfort her, receiving a smile for his trouble, even though it was a sad one.

A couple of ramen noodle pots, energy bars, cans of soda and two bottles of aspirin that had rolled beneath the counter became their reward for putting down the walkers and Beth snagged a packet of the cigarettes Beth knew Daryl liked, his habit not far from her mind after her earlier rebellion, and a few pacifiers for Judith. Her belief was relentless, and if it faltered she just told herself to look in a mirror. She was surviving, that meant that they could as well.

After a short discussion they decided to hide the car behind the gas station and carry on into the town on foot. Beth watched them carefully to see how they were handling the first run either of them had done in a long time, maybe their first ever. They were both nervous, eyes glancing around frantically. Good. They were ready for anything.

"Pharmacy." Annie whispered, pointing to a burnt out building.

"Dammit." Beth whispered. "Ok, eyes open for a pet store. The medicine we used to use on pets and livestock is the same as we use on humans, just in a different packaging."

The others nodded and they carried on further into the town, only putting down walkers that noticed them and those they put down silently. A few streets away Beth thought she heard a small banging but when she stopped to listen there were no other noises so they carried on until they found a deli, the door was ripped off but the windows were intact.

Being in town like they were Beth didn't want to risk banging on the door and instead she hugged the frame and peeked inside the dim shop. The door to the kitchen was closed and there was nothing in the shop itself. The coolers had been broken and withered meats were nestled in unrecognisable rotted salad items, the whole thing still letting off a god-awful stench. With Annie and Noah watching out Beth dropped to her stomach and scanned the floor.

She found a couple of chocolate bars and a packet of gum. Not quite the haul she would have liked but there was still the back. They approached the door slowly and quietly, ducking behind the counter and avoiding the glass shattered across the floor.

With a wince Beth tapped ever so lightly on the door, getting the slight shuffle of feet as her reply. There didn't seem to be many so Beth edged open the door slightly. There was just the one walker inside, sluggishly stumbling to the door. She opened it fully before the walker could crash into it and stepped forward with her knife raised.

The exchange was quiet but Beth still pulled the door closed softly behind them, watching the shop front through the crack. Noah pulled out a flashlight and quickly checked the storeroom, making sure the back door was secure. After packing the supplies they found the trio snuck back into the shop front, halting by the door to check the street was still clear.

The next shop they raided had no walkers and no supplies so they pushed on, finally finding a DIY store that ran all the way through to the next street over, it had an aquarium section and Beth said it would do for medicine. There were a few walkers roaming the isles and they had to be taken down close quarters to stay quiet.

"It's antibiotics." Beth explained happily as she shoved nearly twenty of the yellow bottles she'd found in her bag.

Annie looked about to say something but was interrupted by a pained cry from the next street over. Beth didn't think it through properly; she had zipped her pack and started for the street outside within seconds of hearing the cry, her natural instincts telling her to help.

Noah and Annie were on her heels and when she noticed they were following her she made herself be more cautious. They stopped at the door and looked up and down the street. Away to the left there was a group of maybe fifteen walkers, closing in on a man staggering away from them. To the right there were a few walkers attracted by the noise.

"Get my back, I'm going to help him." Beth directed and the others nodded as they stepped out onto the road. Noah and Annie headed for the three approaching walkers while Beth ignored them completely, running a few steps toward the struggling man.

She aimed carefully at the ones closest to him and when the first one fell to his side he started and his eyes shot to hers, he only faltered for a second before carrying on the fight, taking down walkers with a long wooden staff with alarming precision.

She could hear more walkers at her back, the grunts and small noises of effort from Noah and Annie as they fought. She made herself ignore it though, the man in more desperate need than her friends, trusting that they'd warn her if they couldn't handle it alone.

More walkers fell and finally the last one hit the ground and the man slumped down, holding himself upright with a long wooden staff. Beth turned to help Annie and Noah, finding more walkers spilling into the street further up.

"We gotta go." Beth demanded, quickly dispatching a couple of walkers with her knife. "I'll cover us, run to the man, help him get back to the car, I'm right behind you."

As the others sprinted down the street Beth turned and pulled her bow. Her aim was definitely improving. She only turned to follow after the others when she had used maybe half of her arrows.

Her tired limbs protested as she pushed them to their limit, her run yesterday suddenly felt like a stupid, stupid idea. Still, she pushed hard and spotted Annie and Noah fighting their way through a clothing store that lead to the next street, still supporting the older black man between them. She caught up quickly and cleared the way for them.

The next street was quieter but the air felt different, the enemy knew they were there. The dead caught up with them again a few streets from the gas station.

"Go. I'll keep them back." Beth demanded when they got too close for comfort.

She fired until she had run out of arrows then turned and sprinted to the gas station. She stared in horror at the scene before her. They were being overrun, and they were at the car, they had almost made it.

With no arrows Beth was desperate. She resorted to throwing rocks to try and get their attention. Annie faltered and almost got bit. Beth screamed.

"Over here! Come get me! Fucking Assholes!" She yelled.

Noah faltered next and came even closer to a bite than Annie.

Without thinking Beth lifted her knife and slashed it fiercely across her already scarred wrist. Everything froze. The walkers who were attacking the others stopped and turned almost as one to look at the quaking blonde. Then they were descending upon her. Beth fought hard, constantly pushing up the road.

"Quick, in the car." The new man ordered.

"We're not leaving her." Annie said fiercely.

"We can't kill them all, we can pick her up." He said through gritted teeth, holding onto his upper thigh.

"He's right, come on!" Noah shouted, already climbing into the drivers seat. "Hold on."

Noah blasted the horn to try gain the walkers attention but nothing would sway them. In the end he just rammed his way through them. Beth didn't bother opening the door; she leapt onto the cars bonnet then climbed to the roof, hitting it twice.

"Go!" She yelled and Noah hit the gas, Beth clinging to the bars on the roof.

When they were out of town and she couldn't see any walkers around them Beth hit the roof twice and Noah slowed to a stop. Beth swung her legs over the side and jumped down, climbing into the silent car.

"Hi." She said to the man who watched her suspiciously. She pulled the gun from the back of her belt and held it in her lap.

"Hello." The man said warily, eyeing the gun in her lap.

"I'm Beth."

"Morgan."

"Do you have somewhere you'd like to be dropped off? People who'll want you home safe?" Beth asked, her eyes hard while her words were all southern hospitality.

"No, no people." He said. "And you can drop me anywhere thank you."

Beth just watched him for a minute, finally looking him straight in the eye. He didn't look away and Beth saw no reason to think he was a threat, by the looks of it he didn't have a gun.

"You seem to be injured." She stated simply.

"Yes. It seems to happen a little too often." He said with a smile. His smile was strange, a little crazy, a little sad and a little tense. But not mean, Beth knew mean looks.

"How about you come with us and we'll see what we can do for you? Besides, it aint for free." She said. Morgan froze. "I'm going to level with you, we've been locked up awhile and you're the first decent person we've come across in months. We could use a little update on what's happening these days."

"Well, maybe we could trade." Morgan said slowly, relaxing a little.

"Good. Lucky for you I just scored some antibiotics so you should be fine." Beth stopped dead and looked down at his pant leg. "Bite?" She said quietly.

"No." Morgan assured them, not hesitating in pulling the torn fabric aside to show the jagged, but straight, wound.

"Sorry, had to ask."

"Don't be sorry, I'd be disappointed if you hadn't." Morgan said with another of his smiles.

Beth smiled back and nodded before setting to work cleaning the wound with bottled water. After some aspirin and a bandage reapplied over the tear in Morgan's leg and wrapping another over her own wrist they all settled in to the drive. The silence was a little tense but it didn't leave Beth's stomach heavy with dread, which she figured to be a good sign.

They encountered a cluster of five walkers just down the road from their turn off and Beth insisted they couldn't just leave them so close to home and slid from her place in the back beside Morgan. Annie stepped out too leaving Noah behind the wheel at Beth's direction and together the two women quickly took down the walkers.

"Pull em into the trees." Beth said, grabbing two of them by the shoulders and heaving with all her strength. The run into town had taken a lot out of her and she had to throw her body weight into the action, almost making her stumble.

When her and Annie finally collapsed into the car Beth couldn't help but long for the little house, the running water and small stash of food that was waiting there for them. On the drive down the track, to Beth's horror, she fell asleep, her head resting on the window, only waking when Noah hit a particularly deep pothole.

She looked to Morgan immediately, hoping he didn't see her brief moments of weakness. But when she saw his sleeping figure her eyes started to close again and they stayed that way until she felt the car slowing to a stop.

They left Morgan sleeping in the car while they went to check the area was still clear. Beth sent Noah and Annie around the back of the house so she could keep an eye on their new houseguest. When they signalled it was all clear she opened the car door quietly, waking Morgan gently, trying not to shock him.

"Morgan, we're here." Beth said quietly and the man shot up, hissing almost immediately at the pain in his leg.

"Thanks." He said warily, stepping out onto the dirt when Beth moved out of the way.

"Come on in, we need to clean that wound properly and see if it needs stitches." Beth welcomed him. "Get some dinner going too."

"Oh that's ok." He said softly. "I have my own."

"Ok. Well this is it." Beth declared awkwardly as she opened the door.

Morgan looked around with calculating eyes in a way that made Beth nervous but not scared. It was like he was evaluating their sanctuary and it made Beth feel like she was about to be given a grade.

"Nice." He commented simply.

"We've been sleeping in the lounge, feel free to stay in here with us, but there's a clean bedroom in there that you're welcome to." Beth offered, unsure if the new guy would want to sleep on the floor with people who he barely knew.

"I'll take the bed thanks, better for my leg." Morgan said with another of his smiles.

"No problem, just sit at the kitchen table so we can bathe it and maybe stitch it up."

Annie wiped at his leg carefully while Morgan sat with his face set in iron. After, Beth examined it and declared stitches would be needed, just a couple at the deepest part. Again Morgan sat with his face a blank mask as the needle went into his flesh. The only sign of strain was a thin layer of sweat covering his face.

"Take these." Beth said, handing him two aspirin along with a glass of water when she was finished. "Drink this, then what you need is rest.

Morgan took the pills gladly and quickly downed the glass of water. With a last, strained smile Morgan pulled his staff to him and hobbled to the bedroom. The group remained silent even when the door was closed, Annie and Noah standing awkwardly, not knowing what to do next.

"Come on guys, let's get started on dinner and then get cleaned up." Beth directed with what she hoped was a good impression of her old, beaming smile.

"You ladies go shower, I'll start on food." Noah offered and the two women accepted gratefully.

"Go on, you go first." Beth answered Annie's questioning look, the dark haired woman smiled gratefully and disappeared into the bathroom.

After showers and food they inevitably felt better and they stayed up later than usual, chatting animatedly. Beth darkened the mood though as they started preparing for bed.

"I'm going to take first watch, no arguments. When we switch I want whoever is on watch to not take their eyes off that door." She demanded, pointing at the door Morgan had retired behind. "The slightest hint of it opening and I want to be woken up ok? Even if you're not sure, I want to know."

The night passed without incident and it felt like just another beautiful hospital free morning until their houseguest emerged.

"Just going to use the bathroom, if that's not a problem." He said in way of greeting, the knife held behind his thigh not going unnoticed by Beth.

"Of course not, go right ahead." Annie stuttered.

As he walked across the room Beth saw his eyes sweep over her, spotting the gun she had concealed in the back of her jeans, her hand not far from it. He didn't even flinch, just walked into the bathroom, careful not to make sudden movements, closing the door gently behind him.

They heard the shower start and all relaxed a little, a small breath rushing from Beth's lungs. Noah headed outside to check the perimeter while Annie and Beth carried on with breakfast and when Morgan reappeared Beth offered him some, which he accepted.

They ate in silence, no one really knowing what to say. Even though it was a little uncomfortable Beth didn't think it was as tense as it could have been. It probably helped that Morgan had put his knife safely in his boot and Beth had left her gun on the counter, close enough for her to grab but far enough away to still be considered an act of good faith.

She thought about asking him the questions, the ones they had used at the prison but it felt almost wrong to ask them. Instead she sat quietly and observed their new guest.

In the end she didn't get to ask anything, when he was done Morgan quietly excused himself and returned to the bedroom where he stayed all day. She didn't have much more luck at dinner, only getting the briefest details of the current way of things before he excused himself again.

"Biters are speeding up again now springs on the way." Was all he really had to offer that night.

Beth thought about it later whilst on watch. She supposed she could understand, all he could tell was his story and that stuff was personal, now more than ever. Telling a stranger your story wasn't something you did lightly in the new world. She certainly didn't want to share theirs with him.

So it continued for the next five days.

Beth took Annie out for a few hours a few days in, she wanted to make sure the other woman was really ok and got the impression she was having a hard time being around the strange new man they had in their home. They didn't go far, just off into some woods they hadn't explored yet. Annie had found a big book of plants in the hardware store and she was eager to see if she could find some edible plants or herbs with medicinal value. They didn't find much but Annie assured her the fireweeds that they had foraged would make for good eating.

The days seemed to pass slowly with little interaction with the Morgan. Beth made a point to stay as quiet as he did, not wanting to give anything away about their little group. She felt the weight of responsibility resting heavily on her shoulders and she wondered if that was how Rick had always felt, if it was how Daryl had felt when it was just the two of them after the prison.

Beth was starting to get frustrated and she felt herself growing colder to the older man.

"I had a son. I had a wife. They're both gone now." He started abruptly after dinner on the fifth day. Beth didn't know how he had decided the time was right but she wouldn't question him on it.

Annie handed him a mug of dandelion tea, which he accepted with a smile, taking a small sip before beginning his tale. Beth relaxed as he spoke, her heart aching when he told them about his wife and warming when he spoke of his son. Nothing could prepare her for what he said next.

"My son knocked the guy down. Turns out he'd been in a coma and had woken up to find the world had gone to shit." Morgan explained and the hairs on the back of Beth's neck stood on end. "His name was Rick Grimes."

And she felt like she had been doused in cold water.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six – Daryl

Daryl took more watches than anyone else. He went on the most runs too. He figured that if he couldn't search for Beth because he had to help take care of their family, then he better do a damn good job of it. Besides, he was too restless to sleep and standing around waiting for news of their injured was depressing.

There was enough food in the nearby houses to last them about a week but two days in and Bob declared that food and shelter wasn't going to be enough for Rosita, she needed antibiotics and stronger pain medication.

"I'll go on a run." Maggie offered. "I know what to look for and Bob can write me a list."

"I'd go but Rosita might need me here." Bob apologised, even though he didn't need to.

"I'm going too." Glenn said, taking Maggie's hand. Daryl had to look away.

"Think you'll be ok alone? Need to get some fences rigged up here." Rick asked and Glenn nodded. "Alright."

Daryl met his eye and knew what was coming. Rick was going to lay down the law.

"I don't want to hear talk of DC." Rick stated firmly. "No talk of moving on. We have three injured and none are fit to travel. Rosita won't be fit to for another few weeks at least and she cannot be moved. I don't want Carl out there either until he's strong enough to fight. Tara is doing better but she lost a lot of blood and has barely been conscious the last few days." Rick stopped and looked around, stopping when he found Abe's gaze. Rick was standing as if ready for a fight but Daryl wasn't concerned, the fight was gone from the man's eyes.

"I don't just want Rosita to travel, I need to have her ready to fight, to run. She needs to get her strength back and that's going to take time. DC will have to wait." He didn't say anything else, just stood and walked upstairs to the bedroom Rosita had been placed in.

"Well ok then. Let's get to work."

After a week of back-to-back watches, runs, short hunts and chopping wood Daryl was dead on his feet. Rick had tried to convince him to take a night off but he wouldn't hear of it. Glenn told him he was going to get himself killed if he kept going on runs when he could barely keep his eyes open but he had shrugged off the concern. In the end it had been Carol who had managed to get through to him.

"What're you doing pookie?" She sighed one night after dinner. Daryl had taken up his usual watch on the front steps and Carol had followed him out, sitting herself down on the step beside him.

"What?" He snapped, he'd had a banging headache all day and he was irritable.

"You're burning yourself out Daryl. I won't just sit here and pretend this is ok." She was met with silence and she sighed again. "Look, there's a house full of people in there relying on you to be at your best." Her voice dropped quieter and she laid a hand on his arm. "There's someone out _there_ that needs you to be strong. Hell, if you keep this up you won't even be alive, how the hell are you going to find Beth then?"

Daryl had forgotten that Carol could have a sharp tongue. He flinched from her words and her eyes softened.

"I can't leave now. I ain't gonna leave." Daryl said gruffly. "The family needs me but that don't mean jack shit to Beth right now. She's alone."

"You said she was strong. You've got to have faith in her." Carol said, trying to not see the moisture in the man's eyes. It broke her a little bit inside to see him hurting.

"It's been two weeks Carol. Maybe three." He spat the words out bitterly. He didn't have to explain what they meant.

"You thought about the possibility that Beth got away?" Carol asked suddenly.

"What?" He asked harshly. He was defensive because, honestly, he hadn't considered Beth escaping her mystery captors.

"She's a smart girl. She knows that you're a good tracker but even you can't track a speeding car. She has no way of knowing if help is on the way. Maybe she's already figured that she'll have to save herself, she could already be out there somewhere just staying safe. Maybe she's still wherever they took her and planning an escape. You'll never know if you're not alive to find out." Carol had gotten real good at saying things that needed saying, Daryl would admit that at least.

The thought of Beth out on the road, alone and probably hurt if she had to fight her way out of a bad situation, almost made him retch. But still, the thought of Beth out there somewhere waiting for him to find her was better than the thought of Beth being held by god knows who, god knows where. At least if she was free she would be leaving signs of her existence and probably looking for them. Maybe she was just looking for him now. That last thought made his chest feel tight and he pushed it away quickly.

"Go sleep. I've got your watch." Carol instructed, leaving no room for discussion.

"Thanks." He said gruffly, truly grateful for Carol's talk but unable to express it.

"Any time." And just like that old Carol was back, smiling up at him kindly, hands clasped in her lap, though her gun was right beside her in easy reach.

Daryl hadn't slept enough in the past week to truly claim a spot in the cramped house. After leaving Carol on the step he had gone upstairs to find every room full. He was going to just bed down in the hallway and be done with it but then he spotted the loft hatch.

He pulled down the ladder and climbed up into the boarded loft space. It was full of junk, and no shortage of spiders but Daryl didn't care. It was warm enough and best of all there was no one else there.

He fell asleep quickly to be pushed onto a long road with a car on the horizon. He ran, didn't stop running once he started but the car remained a small smudge on the horizon, never getting any closer, never pulling completely out of view.

Daryl woke the next morning with heart pounding and sweat pouring. Rick noticed something was off but Daryl managed to avoid him during breakfast, sitting beside Carol and Michonne instead of Rick. Bob was a welcome distraction once the meal was over.

"Rosita got worse over night, she needs stronger antibiotics." He started bluntly and the already silent room got impossibly quieter. "If she doesn't get any she will die. If she doesn't get them soon she might loose that leg and the bullet hole is so high up I don't know if I could even remove it if I had to."

"No." The pulsing vein in Abe's forehead was the only warning Daryl and Rick got before the ginger tank was raging through the kitchen.

Both men jumped Abe and tried to pin his arms.

"C'mon man, this ain't helping!" Daryl shouted, desperately trying to bring the man to the floor.

"We have to keep it together!" Rick tried. "We keep our damn heads, get out there and find Rosita what she needs!"

It took a few more moments for Abe to give up the fight and let himself to be pushed into the dirty linoleum of the kitchen floor.

"You good?" Daryl grunted when he'd stopped struggling.

"No." Abe said gruffly. "But I ain't gunna be a damn pussy over it. Get off me so we can find the damn meds."

Rick and Daryl picked themselves up off the floor, keeping a wary eye on the slightly unstable Sargent.

"Why aren't the ones Maggie and Glenn found enough?" Rick asked Bob.

"Not a high enough dose, not enough pills. We need to set her up with an IV. You won't find it in a pharmacy, a clinic or hospital is her only chance." Bob explained while the others listened, still twitchy after Abe's outburst.

"Get the maps." Rick demanded.

They might not enjoy it, but the family thrived during times of crisis. Most of them had been together so long barely any words were necessary as they sprang into action. Abe and Eugene had enough sense to just stand against the wall until they were asked for.

"I'll stay to watch over the house, Bob stays too obviously. I'll need Ty's help with Judith. Need someone else to stay here and help keep watch." Rick said lowly to Daryl as the rest of the group gathered weapons, maps, packs and water bottles.

"Keep Sasha, she's a good fighter. The rest are good on runs. But I ain't taking Eugene on a run like that and I don't think Abe would allow it anyhow." Daryl said softly.

"Sounds good." Rick glanced round before leaning in further. "I don't know if you're going to find it in time, hell if you'll even find it at all. We've been out on runs all week and haven't seen anything like a clinic."

"If Rosita dies Abe's gonna lose it." Daryl warned and Rick sighed, rubbing his jaw.

"I know. Cross that bridge if we come to it." Rick clapped a hand on Daryl's shoulder before walking back to the kitchen table and taking his place at its head, surrounded by maps and a directory.

"Here." Maggie pointed out a town on one of the maps. "There's a clinic here."

Rick checked the directory and nodded.

"Ok. It ain't exactly close but I don't see another way. It'll take a few hours to get there, a few more to get back. Bob, you think Rosita will be ok till this afternoon?"

"Can't say for sure but she's still fighting. Maybe I can buy her a little time, but you're going to have to be fast." Bob warned.

"Then lets stop the talking and get the fuck outta here." Abe growled, stalking from the house to stand restlessly beside a pick up truck they'd managed to get started.

"Ty, Sasha and Eugene, need you to stay here with me." Rick declared, sending an icy look in Eugene's direction when he looked about to protest.

"Everyone else, let's get going." Daryl grunted, leading the way out into the morning light.

It was a cold morning and they could see their breath in thick clouds before them. Abe climbed into the bed of the truck without a word and Michonne and Carol followed him just as silently.

Glenn took the wheel, Maggie navigating. For an awkward moment Daryl didn't know whether to climb into the bed of the truck or climb into the cab with Maggie and Glenn. The thought of hours in a confined space with Maggie made him feel queasy and with a grunt her climbed into the back, hitting the cabs roof twice to get Glenn moving.

The ride was silent. Abe was obviously lost in his own mind, barely paying attention to his surroundings. Michonne and Carol weren't the type to fill silence with meaningless chatter and Daryl was thankful he'd picked that spot as opposed to the one in the cab next to Maggie.

The road wasn't clear, not by a long shot. However for the end of the world it wasn't too horrific. A few fallen trees, two groups of swaying walkers they had passed around easily and some burnt out cars were the only things that got in their way and Daryl was thankful.

They didn't know Rosita well but she seemed ok. Good even. Tough as hell and feisty. Daryl didn't want to watch her die. She had helped his family after all.

It took a few hours to reach the clinic, it was in the middle of a suburb, somewhere they had learnt to avoid. When they pulled up outside Carol and Michonne slipped from the pick up easily, already moving to take out the walkers in the parking lot.

Abe and Daryl followed just behind and the lot was cleared in minutes with a practised ease. Abe was the odd one out in the group and hung back while Daryl and Glenn stood ready at the door.

The clinics reception had been cleared recently, the bodies of finally dead walkers littering the ground. Daryl's stomach dropped. The only reason they would have been cleared if someone had been here scavenging and the only reason to pick over a clinic was medicine.

The pharmacy was a bust. Everything useful to them was gone. Abe had started to turn red but luckily Maggie noticed and spoke up.

"They keep medicines on the wards." She said quickly. "We just have to look a little harder."

"This way." Carol said, already walking off down the hall.

The first ward they found was full of walkers, Daryl had peered through the glass and held his finger to his lips, indicating that they should move on. They should avoid taking that many on if they could help it.

The second ward was better, a handful of walkers that stood almost immobile in the open space. Daryl turned to the others and they leaned in.

"This has gotta be silent. Don't want to rile up the walkers in that other ward, those doors won't hold if they push on it hard enough." When they nodded Daryl turned and pushed open the door.

They moved like shadows, knives and sword sliding into skulls like butter. None of the walkers dropped, they were lowered to the ground silently and the whole exchange took a matter of minutes.

They didn't stop to congratulate themselves; instead Maggie went straight to the nurse's station while the others searched around the beds. They found some other medicines that would be useful and Glenn pocketed a packet of hard-boiled candy. Abe wasn't looking for anything other than antibiotics but Carol snatched up some dressings and Daryl grabbed pretty much everything that wasn't covered in grime or nailed down.

"Trouble." Michonne whispered from her watch by the door.

"Got it." Maggie stated, pushing three bags of clear liquid into her pack along with a handful of other glass vials.

"Michonne?" Glenn asked tightly.

"People." The group froze.

Michonne backed further into the room and the group held their weapons ready. Daryl's heart was beating hard in his chest as he stared down the sight of his crossbow.

A man's face appeared through the grimy glass, his eyes widened and he ducked out of view. A few seconds later and a woman peeked through the window, making wild arm gestures to someone Daryl couldn't see.

The door opened slowly and Daryl didn't breathe. The woman entered first, her gun held loosely in one hand with her other held up.

"Please, we just need medicine." She said quietly. There were two men with her, a younger man who stood at the back of the trio and an older one who surreptitiously edged in front of the woman, his hand on the gun at his hip.

"What do you need?" Daryl asked, still not lowering his crossbow. Desperate people were dangerous people and the woman in front of him was definitely desperate.

"Morphine." The woman answered simply. "There was none in the pharmacy."

"Here. Sorry we can't give you more." Maggie said simply, handing over a few vials of the medicine.

"There's other shit here, we gotta go now." Daryl grunted, leading the way around the strangers, crossbow still trained on them.

"Hey." The woman stopped them. "Thanks."

"Yeah." Daryl replied. "Hope the medicine helps."

They left quickly and Daryl didn't relax again until they were an hours fast driving from the clinic.

"We'll make it back in time." Abe said suddenly after an hour of silence.

"Course we will." Daryl assured him, hoping he sounded confident.

He didn't miss the nervous look passed between Carol and Michonne. They knew, as did he, that if Rosita were to be dead by the time they got back Abe would be on the warpath. He'd probably get himself killed, or at least get close before he'd remember his mission with the socially awkward scientist.

During the rest of the ride back tension seemed to settle on the pick up like a heavy fog. Daryl couldn't stop chewing at his thumbnail and Abe's neck veins were popping. Even Carol's foot was tapping. Only Michonne stayed perfectly still, keeping a careful watch around them, more on guard after their run in with the strangers in the clinic.

Abe didn't even wait for the truck to come to a complete stop, grabbing the backpack Maggie had stuffed the medicine in and vaulting over the side of the truck. Daryl followed after him, ready to tackle him down if things went south.

It wasn't necessary, Rick and Bob met them at the door and reported Rosita was hanging on. Bob took the backpack from Abe and led the way into Rosita's room. First he hooked up the antibiotics, then after rifling through the supplies he added a bag of fluids to get some nutrients into her and a shot of the morphine to make her more comfortable. With Rosita stabilised Bob could finally turn his attention to his other patients.

He visited Carl next and Daryl followed. He had been in to see the kid a couple of times during the week but he hadn't stayed very long, eager to be out doing something.

"Hey Carl." Bob smiled when they walked into the room the Grimes were staying in. Little Judith was sat on the dresser in a deep drawer they had recycled as a crib.

"Hey, how's Rosita?" He asked, wincing as he tried to sit up. Rick stepped forward to help but Carl glared at him and he stepped back, hands held up in surrender.

"Not great, but she has what she needs, all we can do now is give her time." Bob replied. "How about you, how're you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

"No. You were shot." Bob replied. "Now some of the swellings gone down we'll clean it again, get a better splint on there and bind it tighter. No moving it for at least three weeks and nothing strenuous for another month after that. No lifting, no holding Judith and no refusing help until that arm is fixed. If you don't listen the bone will heal wrong and then one day I'll only have to break it again to set it right."

"Wow. Has anyone ever told you your bedside manner sucks?" Carl asked sarcastically.

"But on the bright side I'm a half decent doctor." Bob said with a grin.

"Listen to the doc." Daryl grunted, picking up Lil' Asskicker and balancing her on his hip. She gurgled happily at him and he couldn't help but smile.

"Is Tara doing any better?" Carl asked suddenly. "Maggie said she wasn't doing so great."

"The bullet only grazed her but then fighting walkers tore the wound. Took a while to get the bleeding to stop fully but I didn't think it was that bad. She isn't doing much better than before though, I think she lost more blood than we realised. It's hard for the body to produce blood on an apocalypse diet so she's still struggling."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" He asked.

"I might have to give her blood tomorrow if there's been no change. It'll knock me out though and Rosita needs me. Ty found some iron tablets yesterday and I managed to get her to take a couple but then she passed out again. I'll take a couple tonight and then tomorrow maybe I could give her a top up or something." Bob sighed. "I don't know. I'm an army medic, not a wizard, can't make blood out of thin air. Right. Let's get that arm sorted."

Rick clapped a hand to his sons shoulder as he gritted his teeth through the pain of Bob binding his arm. Even with the dose of morphine Bob gave him the pain was bad and Carl was glad when it was done, quickly wiping away the tears that had gathered in his eyes.

"Go to sleep Carl, the morphine will make you drowsy anyway. Best thing you can do now is sleep, it'll help you heal and at least it won't hurt then."

"Again, your bedside manner ain't worth shit." Carl snarked.

"Carl." Rick warned while Daryl sniggered. Carl caught the look on Daryl's face and grinned at him.

Tyreese came in and took Judith to be fed and Bob ushered Rick and Daryl from the room so that Carl could sleep.

"Any trouble out there?" Rick asked when they were back in the kitchen.

"Nah. Ran into some people at the clinic. They just wanted morphine, didn't stop to chat, they seemed to be in a rush like we were so we weft them to it." Daryl answered.

"Ok then. If we're settling down here for a while we've gotta get this place ready, some food stockpiled for if we can't make it out, and this place has to be a fortress. Tara and Rosita aren't going to be able to run if a herd passes through, we have to make sure that if the worst happens we can lock up and survive here till the walkers move on." Rick announced.

"What else do you need for Rosita Doc?" Abe questioned.

"Nothing. She just needs time to heal now, we've done everything we can, the rest is up to her." Bob replied and Abe nodded, standing and walking from the room.

"S'getting late." Daryl said, noting the darkening sky outside.

"Then we're done for the day. Tomorrow can you go hunt?" Rick asked and Daryl nodded that he could. As Rick started to hand out jobs for the following day for everyone else Daryl left.

In need of some space from the others and new bolts Daryl spent the afternoon whittling new ones by candlelight in the attic. After a quiet family meal Daryl quickly retreated back into the attic, leaving during the night to take watch.

Over the next week he went on a couple of runs with Rick and Glenn, made a point to speak with Carol every evening after dinner. Still, it was hard and he found himself out in the woods hunting or up in his loft alone more often than not.

Tara and Carl were finally back on their feet and Rosita was declared out of the woods. Daryl didn't consider leaving the group but with the injured on their way to a full recovery he didn't feel like he had to stay quite so close.

Another week passed and Daryl started to withdraw further from the group, not frantic but persistent in his search for Beth. He clung to what Carol had said, needing to think of Beth out on the road instead of trapped somewhere at the mercy of some arsehole.

Four and a half weeks after Beth was taken Rick interrupted Daryl's self exile and climbed up into his attic to talk to him one night after dinner.

"There's been good hunting round here." Rick commented as he sat down uninvited.

"Yeah." Daryl replied, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the obvious conversation starter.

"Look man." Rick sighed. "I just want to make sure you're doing alright. You leave every morning as soon as the sun goes up and don't get back until after dark."

"Yeah." Daryl said again, challenging the other man to say what he really meant.

"You wanna tell me what it is you're looking for?"

"Really man?"

"Ok, dumb question." Rick conceded.

"Yeah." Daryl was going to leave it at that but decided to show a little mercy. "I just gotta look for a sign she's alive. I know I'll find it, I just gotta keep looking. I'm still putting meat on the table." He finished defensively.

"I'll help you look, we all will." Rick promised but Daryl shook his head.

"We have injured." He said simply. "We've barely got any food. We both know the group can't go out searching for Beth right now, we need to be looking for food and somewhere better to move into once Rosita's better, this place aint defensible. If I get half of you killed looking for Beth, she'll fucking murder me when we find her. No, I can look for some sign of her while I'm hunting."

Rick smirked, Daryl was right, Beth would _not_ be happy if she found out members of her family had died searching for her. He clapped his hand to Daryl's shoulder before leaving. He said he hoped Daryl found what he was looking for.

The week following Daryl and Rick's chat was a bad one full of rain, small bands of walkers and bad men.

It was Michonne and Glenn who had the run in with the low life dicks at a souvenir store a good few miles from the house. They had banged on the door, nothing had come out so they had stepped right on in. They'd been stupid, Glenn had known it the second he saw the butt of a rifle appear from the side of the door and smash into the side of Michonne's head. She stumbled but didn't go down. Glenn had seconds to react and with his gun already raised he didn't hesitate before shooting the man who had hit Michonne.

Another man stepped out and had a knife held to Michonne's throat before Glenn could do much else. The last man stepped out with a gun pointing at Glenn, a baseball cap sat jauntily on his head.

"Now don't be startin' with no foolishness." The third man said through rotting, yellow teeth.

"What do you want?" Glenn asked bitingly. In truth he didn't want to know, it couldn't be anything good, but he needed to keep them talking until Michonne came round enough to help get them out of the mess they found themselves in.

"Well. We want lots a things don't we Den."

"We sure do." Den, the man holding onto Michonne, replied.

"We'll start with your guns."

Glenn's eyes flickered to Michonne's and he could have laughed with relief when he caught her slight nod. Without hesitation he fired on the baseball cap wearing arsehole as Michonne took out the one holding onto her. Glenn walked away without injury but Michonne took a slice to the jaw. She insisted it didn't hurt and they made quick work of taking the men's weapons.

"Think we can risk searching this place?" Michonne asked.

"Not today, not after the gunshots, this place will be crawling with walkers soon. Besides I think Bob should have a look at you." Glenn replied, already checking the outside of the store

"Let's at least move the bodies outside and shut the door, don't want to come back to find the place full of walkers." Michonne instructed, grabbing one of the bodies and dragging it out onto the road.

They made it home with no other problems, though Michonne's jaw throbbed painfully. Bob said she was lucky, it hadn't been a deep cut and he was able to patch her up with thin strips of medical tape.

Bob's official advice was. "Keep it clean but leave it open to the air, it'll close up quicker."

That Dinner was spent listening to Glenn and Michonne recount their hostile encounter. People were quiet at first but soon they had dissolved into a discussion as to whether it was still safe to stay in the area. Daryl tensed immediately.

"Did they look like they had a camp?" Maggie asked.

"Can't say. They looked worse than us but that doesn't mean much. They didn't seem the type to be bothered by their personal hygiene." Glenn answered, thinking of the yellowing teeth and tattered clothes. That and they had stunk to high heaven.

"If they had other people out there we didn't see any sign of them, and besides, when Glenn shot the first one the others barely even glanced at his body. I don't think they'll be missed by anyone." Michonne put in.

"Can Rosita move yet? If we have to?" Rick asked Bob.

"Yes, but not far and not on foot. She'll have to be carried and then she can't even be in a car too long, she's still on full bed rest." Bob answered and the pressure on Daryl's chest lessened slightly.

"How long before she's ready to start moving towards DC?" Abe asked, as Rosita had woken and seemed to be getting stronger he had stopped being quite so protective. The mission was back at the forefront of his mind.

And the pressure was back, stoking up his anger till he was ready to start yelling. He opened his mouth but Rick beat him to the punch.

"Really? You're really asking that fucking question?" He snarled. "You just heard what Bob said, Rosita can barely even stand and you're getting itchy feet?"

"We can't forget the mission. Rosita knows that, we've spoken about it already." Abe defended himself.

"Oh please!" Maggie cried. "That woman would get up and set off now if you asked her too. Don't mean she's ready for it."

"I do not think it is in our best interests to set off for DC until Rosita is back to full strength." Eugene spoke up from the outskirts of the group. Daryl noticed when his voice cracked slightly somewhere in the middle.

"Fine." Abe growled. "This aint' over." With that dramatic finish he stormed out of the house.

Abe didn't come back that night and the next morning, Daryl was gone before he returned. Daryl had left a roughly scrawled note for Rick but hadn't waited to speak to him. He just had to get out.

In a few days he had made it back to the funeral home. The graveyard was devoid of walkers and the whole clearing just looked so serene. Every step he took towards the little white building seemed to take him closer to the time he had spent there with Beth. He didn't allow himself to think too much into it as he veered closer to a familiar gravestone, picking a wildflower to place on top of it.

He was careful entering the house itself, expecting at least a few walkers still to be stumbling around inside. He was wrong, the house stood empty. The corpses were still littering the hallway and a horrific stench rose from the cellar stairs, tainting the otherwise beautiful space.

Daryl wandered from room to room in complete silence, numb to everything but the guilt hanging heavy around his neck. It was the piano room that broke him. The room was exactly as they had left it and when he looked to the doorway he half expected Beth to come limping through it. He ran until he was back outside, where he took great heaving breaths of cool air.

After pulling himself together Daryl searched the area but didn't find anything. He stayed there for a few days, sleeping in the coffin he had lain in what felt like months ago, feeling like he deserved the uncomfortable weight that settled on his chest every time he entered the room. After he was sure there were no traces of Beth at the funeral home he walked to the crossroads. He didn't know what he was hoping to find there, all he did find was the same maddening choice. Which road to take.

This time around he didn't just collapse to his knees and give up. He methodically searched down each road. For days he found nothing more than a couple of burnt out houses and a gas station that was well picked over. After nine days alone he saw the sign for Atlanta and just knew. It had to be Atlanta. There was nothing else around for miles. Nothing else made sense.

His first instinct was to run to the city. Just run and then tear it apart block by block until he found her. He couldn't do that though. He was just one man and the city was bound to be dangerous. Besides he had been gone for over a week and he needed to check in with Rick. He could go straight to Atlanta from the house.

He had to take a detour thanks to a herd of walkers and so it took him a couple of days to make it home. Sasha had been on watch as he approached and she smirked at him.

"Oh someone's in trouble." She grinned before calling back into the house. "The prodigal son has returned."

"Daryl?" He heard Rick call from in the house. "He's back?"

"Yep." Sasha replied, popping the p.

Daryl started to get nervous. There were few things that truly made Daryl nervous anymore but the prospect of Rick being justifiably pissed at him was one of them. He could acknowledge that maybe he'd been wrong to take off with only a shitty note as an explanation. At the time he had been so driven to get out of there and pick up the search but as he stood on the porch waiting to face his brother suddenly it just seemed like a fucking stupid idea.

"What the fuck?" Rick demanded, marching straight up to the jittery archer.

"I left a note." Daryl shot back; anger was always his first line of defence when he knew he was in the wrong.

"And then you took off for two weeks." Rick replied through gritted teeth.

"I didn't mean to be gone so long." Daryl tried to excuse himself but Rick just scoffed.

"You should have spoken to me first. You know you should. I understand why you went, but we're family. We don't just up and leave." Rick argued.

"I didn't leave! I mean I was always gonna come back." Daryl tried to defend.

"Anything could have happened out there. You know that. We were worried." At Rick's words Daryl's shoulders slumped. He had known they would worry, of course they would, he just hadn't expected to feel so guilty when it had been confirmed.

"I had to do something." Daryl said quietly, out of defensive excuses to hurl.

Knowing that was as close as he was going to get to an apology Rick sighed and clapped a hand to Daryl's shoulder.

"You find anything?"

"Nah, not really. But I think they must have taken her to Atlanta, there aint fuck all else around there for miles." Daryl replied.

Rick had more to say but he didn't get the chance. Everyone at the house had emptied out onto the porch to see if Daryl really was back. Tyreese, Glenn and Maggie were out on a run but everyone else seemed to have something to say to the returned wanderer.

Daryl didn't apologise once but when Carol was before him with a disappointed and hurt look in her eyes his flickered down to his boots shuffling in the dirt.

"Don't scare me like that again." Was all she said before moving to hug him tightly. "Anything?" She asked quietly as she pulled away. She had known why he'd up and left without having to read his crappy note.

Daryl just shook his head and Carol moved away to let the next person in the line to take her spot in front of him. Carl looked at him with a smirk and told him his Dad had been pissed.

Daryl was glad to see Carl was doing better, what little colour he had before getting shot had returned and he didn't seem to be in pain anymore which was good. His arm was still in a sling but Bob wasn't hovering nearby which Daryl took to be a good sign.

Tara was outside too, chatting happily to Eugene and she seemed to be back to normal as far as Daryl could tell, not really knowing the woman.

It wasn't until after dinner that Rick found chance to speak to him again, cornering him as he smoked on the porch outside.

"You're not planning on staying long are you?" Rick asked bluntly.

"Nah, I gotta check out Atlanta." Daryl replied, the decision to tell Rick his plan this time already made.

"I'm coming with you. Already spoke about it with Michonne, she and Glenn can handle things here. I know Abe is going to want to get back on the road when Rosita is better. If we can find Beth before he starts getting restless we can avoid the argument. I know that a lot of our people want to help get Eugene to DC, hell I want to believe he has the cure and I want to be a part of making it happen." Rick sighed. "But I want Beth with us when we do that."

"Alright. I want to leave tomorrow." Daryl said after a few moments.

"What about Maggie? Think she might want to know that we're going out to look for her sister? They're due back tomorrow night, we could wait for them." Rick asked.

"Nah man, it's been too long already." Daryl huffed.

Rick sighed and rubbed his jaw, giving Daryl a hard stare. "If you're sure."

"It's been too long already." He repeated, suddenly getting uncomfortable Daryl threw down the butt of his cigarette and kicked it against the boards.

"We'll tell the others tomorrow at breakfast then head out." Rick declared, breezing past Daryl's awkwardness.

"Ok, night." Daryl grunted before retreating into the house and going straight up to the attic.

To say that it was the first safe night Daryl had since leaving weeks before, he couldn't sleep for shit. He tossed and turned for hours before he finally drifted into a sleep full of the most gruesome deaths he had witnessed, each one of them happening to Beth right in front of him.

He woke up an hour before sunrise, sweating and sick to his stomach. Angrily he climbed down into the hall and stalked through the house and into the woods beyond. Daryl Dixon hated to be at the mercy of emotion, in fact he prided himself in the ability to 'nut up and get shit done' as Merle would have said.

After he had calmed down and splashed some water on his face Daryl found his way back to the house and found half the group already up and assembled in the kitchen. As usual breakfast was a chaotic affair and Daryl slipped into the chaos without hesitation. Soon everyone else had assembled apart from Sasha who was once again on watch. When the food was passed out and everyone was eating silence descended. Everyone knew that they weren't just having breakfast, they were at a briefing.

"I spoke to Daryl last night." Rick opened after a few minutes. "Like he said in the note, he went to try find trace of Beth. Now he didn't find anything concrete but it's looking like she was taken to Atlanta. Beth is one of us and if there's even the slightest chance that she's there we have to know."

"You're going back out there aren't you?" Carol asked quietly, directing her question at Daryl.

"Yeah." He answered just as quietly. Carol sat back and nodded, worry settling on her face.

"He won't be going alone this time, I'm going too." Rick declared, glancing at Michonne who as usual gave nothing away.

"I'm going too." Carl immediately volunteered, his expression already defensive when he turned to his dad.

"No." Rick said simply, shaking his head. "Atlanta was overrun last we heard, it's going to be dangerous and it'll be easier to get in and out with just us two. We don't know what we might be walking into or if she's even there. Rosita still can't travel and I don't think you should be putting any strain on your arm. Me and Daryl will go, everyone else will stay here, keep going on runs and guarding the house."

"What if you need a doctor? Atlanta is days from here, what if she's hurt and needs medical attention?" Bob asked. With Rosita out of the woods the army doctor no longer had to be within five minutes of the house. "I should go with you."

"Truth is we don't even know if she's there." Rick sighed and Daryl felt his jaw twitch. She was there. She had to be. "Me and Daryl will be faster on our own."

No room was left for discussion and soon Daryl and Rick were putting the house in their rear view mirror, heading for Atlanta.

Daryl wanted to go into Atlanta the way that Beth would have entered which meant skirting the city somewhat. In the end it took them three days to pick up the road Daryl knew had to be the one to take Beth into the city.

"We'll drive as far as we can then go in on foot." Rick said as they neared the city.

"We'll have to hide the car." Daryl commented, sharpening his knife for the tenth time that day. The closer they got to Atlanta the more on edge he felt.

It was getting dark when they got their first view of the sprawling cityscape. The decision to stop for the night and enter the city the next morning was made quickly and soon they found a cabin not far from the road.

Half of the cabin's roof had fallen in but it was clear of walkers and the kitchen was still securable. After raiding the cupboards and finding nothing they shared one meagre tin of chickpeas and hunkered down for the night, watches already arranged.

Rick had spent the entire journey trying to warn Daryl that they might not find anything, deep down he didn't think they were going to find Beth alive but he wasn't about to tell Daryl that outright. He just didn't want to see Daryl get his hopes up just to be crushed if they didn't find her, or worse, found her dead. Daryl wouldn't hear any of it, brushing off any comment Rick made.

"Daryl?" He said quietly.

Daryl had heard him but didn't move, he couldn't believe that at thirty something years old he was lying there pretending to be asleep like some damn child.

With a sigh Rick stood up and walked to the window to take up his watch.

When they swapped Rick tried to talk to him again but Daryl avoided it by telling him to go rest and turning resolutely to look out of the window. Daryl wasn't a stupid man, he knew exactly what Rick wanted to say and he didn't want to hear it.

When the sun rose Daryl wasn't feeling any more talkative and Rick let the matter drop. After a quick breakfast they set off on foot, moving quickly and quietly through the outer city. The streets were cluttered and dirty, the stench horrific.

Before mid day they had covered a few miles, searching for any sign of other survivors. They had walked through burnt out areas of the city and been diverted by hoards of the dead, Rick felt they were going in circles and he was struggling to keep the hope. It seemed impossible to search the city and the thought of Beth trying to survive in that hell had him hoping she wasn't within ten miles of the place. Daryl stalked on, seemingly unconcerned by the city's state.

"Look." Daryl grunted under his breath. There were a couple of dead walkers, the blood still sticky on the tarmac with tyre tracks leading in both directions.

"Must have been taken out recently." Rick commented.

Daryl crouched in the middle of the road and examined the bloody tyre tracks. "There's been a lot of traffic since it happened, going both ways."

"We'll follow them into the city, keep out of sight. Maybe we'll get lucky and find where they came from, maybe we'll see the car that took Beth." Rick suggested. "Someone had to make these tracks and even if they don't have her, they might know whoever does."

"A'ight." Daryl agreed gruffly, standing and setting off down the road.

As always the dead got in their way and the two men had to leave the car tracks and loop back round, the detour taking a couple of hours. It was getting dark when they picked up the trail and after a short discussion they agreed it was time to stop for the night.

They found an empty cell phone repair shop positioned perfectly to keep watch on the tire tracks in the road. After locking the door up tight they warmed a tin of soup on a small camping stove from Rick's pack. The meal was another meagre one but neither man complained. They kept watch over night but when the sun rose the next morning they both set to work packing up their camp. Daryl heard the car first and rushed to the window. He arrived just in time to see a police car speeding along the very track they were following. The car was different to the one that had taken Beth and Daryl's shoulders slumped. They tensed again when he saw the white cross, painted on the back window.

"Dammit." He hissed before going for the door.

He was too late when he got out in the cool morning air. The car was gone. Daryl went to follow it but Rick grabbed him and pulled him back into the phone store.

"It's them, the people who took Beth!" Daryl exclaimed.

"And they were heading out of the city, they'll be coming back this way and when they do, we'll be ready." Rick said quickly, trying to calm down his irate friend before he could attract walkers.

He knew Rick was right, it was smarter to wait. But Daryl felt like he was right back at that night two months ago when Beth was taken, his legs itched to chase that car down.

"Come on, let's just get this done so we're ready when they come back." Rick sighed, already pulling out nails and a roll of duct tape from his pack.

For the next hour Rick and Daryl sat on the floor pushing the nails through the tape in silence. Daryl's mind raced with possible scenarios of how the rest of day could play out and he stabbed himself in the hand more than once. Rick wisely stayed quiet as he let out a string of curses.

It wasn't until hours later, when the sun was setting and it was beginning to get dark that the sounds of a car roused Daryl and Rick from their silent watch. The traps had been long since completed and set out in the road; the nails covered lightly by pieces of old newspaper and trash bags.

As soon as Daryl heard the rumble of a car's engine his whole body tensed and he had to fight against the instinct to rush out into the street. Crouching by the window he and Rick watched as the police car drove straight over their DIY spike trap.

The car didn't stop right away; it swerved sharply then slowed to a stop after maybe twenty feet. Rick and Daryl left the store with their weapons held high, ready and willing to shoot. No one had emerged from the car and the two men approached carefully.

The front doors opened quickly and two men climbed out, weapons already drawn.

"Don't bother, we'll kill you before you get a shot." Rick advised, his arm unwavering as he pointed his gun at the larger man's head.

"What do you want?" The other man asked with a sigh.

"To talk." Rick answered simply. He left the two men to wait as he eyed them, leaving them until they began to shift their weight, twitching nervously. "One of our people was taken. You know anything about that?"

The two men stilled instantly, they looked to each other and after a few moments they slowly placed their guns on the street and lifted their hands in surrender.

"We can take you to them. I'm Franco and this is Tanaka, we can explain everything."

"You better pray you aint lying to us." Daryl growled, struggling to keep calm as he watched the men who may have taken Beth through the sight of his crossbow.

"A lot's changed." Franco said, his voice shaking.

"Everything's changed." Tanaka clarified, his voice firm.

"Just shut up and take us to Beth." Rick ordered. "And put your hands behind your backs." The men shared a panicked glance but complied, allowing Daryl to tie their hands while Rick kept his gun trained on them.

Daryl opened the back door of the police car and roughly pushed the men inside. Rick took watch of their prisoners while Daryl climbed behind the wheel.

"Where." He barked, making the men in the back flinch.

"We're at the hospital, Grady." Tanaka offered. "Keep driving this way, take the second left then right at the traffic lights."

The drive was silent and tense, the rumble of the cars engine the only sound in the suffocating space. Daryl focussed intently on the road in front, not wanting to get his hopes up that he might actually find Beth. Soon enough the hospital came into view and they rolled up to tall gates, having to zigzag through strategically placed cars covered in barbed wire. There was a man and woman stood guard atop the gate with large rifles and worried looks on their faces.

Rick reached into the backseat and pulled the door beside Franco open.

"Get out. Tell them to stand down." Franco nodded and climbed slowly from the car.

"It's alright, everything's ok." He hurried to assure his people. "Go get Amanda and open the gate, these people are just looking for their friend."

Daryl and Rick were next out of the car, Daryl opening the door for Tanaka as he went. The man from the gate had gone, leaving the woman standing there nervously holding her rifle.

"Clara, everything's going to be ok." Franco reassured the woman on the gate.

"Get Beth out here." Rick demanded, pushing his gun into Franco's back. "We want to see her."

"Open the gate Clara." Tanaka called. Clara nodded and climbed down from her perch to open the gate.

Rick and Daryl kept their captives in front of them as they approached the gate, keeping their weapons trained at their backs. The gate opened slowly, revealing an average parking lot with more of the cars painted with white crosses. A small group of people were walking towards them, exiting from bulking form of the hospital. A woman Daryl assumed was Amanda led the group, she was young but looked confident as she strode forward.

"Amanda." Franco called before the woman could say anything. "These folks are looking for Beth." That made Amanda stop short, a look of panic flitting across her features before she could school them into an impassive mask.

"Ok. Let's talk, but first I'm going to need you to lower your weapons." She said in a calm, firm voice.

"Not going to happen." Rick informed her. "Where's Beth?"

"There's a lot to talk about, it's a long story." Amanda tried to explain, stopping at Daryl's growl.

"Where the fuck is Beth?" He questioned, pushing his crossbow into Tanaka's back for good measure.

"We," Amanda tried to start. She sighed and her shoulder slumped. "We don't know."

Overwhelming disappointment was followed by a cautious hope. She wasn't there, but they didn't say she was dead.

"Please. Everything's changed." An older man with grey hair stepped forward, leaning on a cane. "Beth changed everything."

"Talk quickly." Rick advised.

"When Beth was first brought here she was a prisoner, like me." The older man said. Rick didn't fail to notice that he had avoided using the word us. "Her and two others escaped, not only that but they managed to give us a chance, to take this place from the people in charge. They killed one of the police officers, then waited for him to change and then threw him into the staff room where the worst of them went on a night to drink. They blocked the door and then they left. Not all of the officers were in the staff room, there were some who weren't a part of the worst things that went on here." Amanda stepped forward again.

"A few of us had been waiting for the opportunity to take them down and we took it. As the survivors fell out of the staff room we killed them all, one by one."

"What happened to Beth?" Rick asked.

"She got away, with a boy called Noah and another woman, Annie. At first everything was chaos here. The people that had been kept here haven't been out there in a long time. People were scared. Everyone was of course free to go, but for everything wrong with Grady, it's safe from walkers. With Dawn and the rogue officers gone most people decided to stay, they don't know if there's anyone left waiting for them out there somewhere. It's only been a couple of weeks, but we're trying to make this place somewhere good." Amanda had a heady mix of guilt, desperation and hope in her eyes as she tried to explain the situation.

"In the days after their escape we managed to piece together what had happened. Percy had overheard Beth and Noah planning their escape and as soon as he heard the screaming he knew what was happening." Franco said, shifting uncomfortably.

"People seem to take no notice of me." Percy, the old man, said with a rueful smile. "I overhear a lot. I knew which officers could be trusted, knew that Amanda here had been plotting with Franco. I saw her stood outside the staffroom with another of the officers, one of the bad ones. I shouted to her this was her chance and she shot him without hesitation."

"A couple of days after, I went out looking for them, to tell them that things had changed, to thank them and offer them more supplies." Amanda confessed. "But I couldn't find a trace of them. I didn't find the car they took either and we scoured the city, I think they made it out."

"Please." Percy asked. "Come inside and we can sit down together, if we can help you we will, we all owe them so much."

Rick glanced to Daryl and stared at him hard. After a couple of moments Daryl shook his head and Rick nodded in agreement.

"We look out for our own." Rick said firmly.

"Do you know which direction they left the city?" Daryl asked, his mind already consumed with the task of tracking Beth.

"Sorry. No one even saw them leave. But the car they took, it was the one that brought Beth here." Percy offered the information and Daryl's gut clenched painfully, his mind assaulted by images of that car driving off into the night.

"Last question." He growled. "The ones that took Beth, stole her, where are they?"

"Dead." Amanda answered, looking him straight in the eye.

Percy tried hard to get them to stay the night, but Rick and Daryl were adamant they were leaving the city. The ex-police officers and civilians all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as the two strange men disappeared into the night, all except Percy, who sighed as he watched them leave, wishing there was more he could have done to help them.

Half an hour out from the hospital Rick and Daryl had run into a problem. They'd been working their way back through the city the same way they had come in, but then they'd seen a group of walkers blocking their path. A familiar series of events soon followed. They were corralled into a once sketchy looking area and eventually found themselves stuck in a pizza shop with over fifty walkers loitering outside.

"Maybe we should have stayed the night." Rick tried to joke as they closed themselves in the walk in fridge.

"We can find her." Daryl answered to which Rick sighed, Daryl clearly wasn't eager to lighten the mood.

"We don't know which way she went." Rick tried to reason, Daryl waved his concerns away.

"Don't matter which way she went, she'll try to make it back to the funeral home. She'll keep looking for us, we just have to let her know we're still out here for her to find."

"Ok." Rick appeased him. "We'll go back to the funeral home, leave a note for Beth if she happens back that way. On the way back to the others we'll leave more signs. We'll have to keep them vague but something she'll recognise."

"I'll come back with you, speak to Maggie, then I gotta get back out here and find her." Daryl insisted.

"Ok, we should discuss it as a family when we get back." Rick tried to suggest.

Daryl grumbled under his breath but Rick chose to ignore him, instead they both settled in for a tense night listening to the dead outside shuffle away slowly. It took until noon the next day for Rick and Daryl to be able to make a break for it then another five hours to make it back to where they'd hidden the car. Their luck changed and thankfully the car was still where they'd left it. Deciding they had already lost too much time they pushed on and once again their luck held and they had clear open roads all the way to the funeral home. They spent the remainder of the night there, which sat heavily in Daryl's gut for reasons unknown, and carefully crafted a letter to Beth the following morning which he left nailed to the front door.

As they drove away from the funeral home Daryl couldn't decide if he felt better or worse than he had on the way there. On the one hand at least he knew that the people that had taken Beth hadn't killed her, also she wasn't alone and she'd managed to escape. On the other hand he no longer had any idea where the hell she could be.

During the day and a half it took to make it back to the other Daryl slipped into a foul mood that Rick tried valiantly to break him out of. It didn't work. When they made it back all the sullen archer wanted to do was retreat to his attic, pull up the ladder and pretend the rest of the world didn't exist, just for a few days or so. Maggie wasn't having any of it.

When they first pulled up to the house Maggie had been on watch and after calling a hasty warning into the kitchen she raced down to the car. When the two men stepped out with no blonde companion in sight she sunk to the ground, tears already pouring from her eyes.

"Just tell me." She demanded, voice already broken. The sight pissed Daryl off so he kept quiet and let Rick do the talking.

"She was taken to a hospital in Atlanta, sounds like it was a bad place, but Beth had already escaped with a couple of others by the time we arrived. We don't know where she went after that but we know she got out of the city and she was with decent people when she left." Rick finished, he was using that hopeful voice he used when the odds were stacked against them but he wanted the group to keep fighting anyway.

"She got out." Maggie said quietly, her face blank. Then she laughed, a huge grin splitting her face. "She got out!" She grabbed Glenn into a bone-crushing hug and her mood was contagious, this was good news.

Daryl didn't want to bring the mood down but he thought they were all being stupid. Had it occurred to none of them that they hadn't actually found Beth yet? That she was still out there somewhere? They were back to square one and ok, it was good that Beth had gotten out of the bad situation she had been in but situations could change quickly. She'd been safe with him, after all, until she hadn't been. Still, seeing the group happy made him keep his mouth shut.

That night they'd all been in good spirits apart from Daryl, even Abe had seemed to welcome the good news about Beth. They all squashed themselves around the kitchen table, Rosita joining them for dinner for the first time since she'd been shot, and it had felt almost like old times. Sure some faces were missing and there were some new ones now too but the atmosphere was pretty much the same.

The very next day they began work on finding Beth. Carefully worded signs were left along the main roads and they kept a careful look out for her reply but as the days turned into weeks their hope began to fade once more.

It had been two weeks since Rick and Daryl got back from Atlanta when Daryl overheard a conversation between Glenn and Maggie that he really wished he hadn't.

"I don't think we're going to find her." Maggie confided quietly in her husband.

"Maggie don't think like that." Glenn said in a whisper. "She could still be out there."

"God I hope so. But even if she is I don't think I'll ever see her again. They said she'd gotten out with a couple of others; she's probably followed them wherever they were going. Maybe they had a safe place or something, someone waiting for them somewhere. I wish I could have her back but it's enough to know that there's a good chance she's somewhere safe with people who'll look after her."

Daryl didn't know exactly what it was about Maggie's words that had pissed him off so much but the morning after that he'd told Rick he was going out on a longer run and he'd be back at some point. Rick had been pissed but known better than to argue with Daryl when the vein in his forehead was jumping like a jackrabbit. Instead he stepped out of his way and watched his angry friend go with a sigh.

The solitude of the forest usually calmed him down but on that occasion, it didn't work. Days after he'd left he still felt anger bubbling just under the surface. A few days after that he'd been in a bit of a tough spot with a group of walkers and had to fight his way out. He'd just about made it, his heart hammered in his chest and adrenaline flew through his system. Usually that cleared his head but all he felt as the last walker hit the dirt was empty and pissed off.

Finally he figured it out. As he half-heartedly cleared a cluster of houses he realised why he was angry. He was beginning to agree with what Maggie had quietly confessed to Glenn. He didn't think he'd ever see Beth again. The thought made his throat close up painfully and tears stung his eyes. In a predictable Dixon move Daryl lashed out, punching at the walls with reckless abandon. Once his knuckles were swollen and bloody, all the rage emptied out into the now destroyed plaster Daryl began his search again with a renewed focus, sickened with himself for losing hope.

He found nothing. No sign of Beth. No sign of that fucking car that had taken her. Nothing. Feeling numb he turned for home, he'd already been gone over a week, the others would be starting to worry. _Not that I deserve it,_ he thought to himself bitterly.

Upon returning to the group Daryl didn't say a single word. He shook his head when Rick asked him if he'd found anything, ignored everyone else's questions and walked through the house straight to the attic, even going so far as to pull up the ladder and shut the trap door after him. He didn't want to answer questions; hell he didn't want to talk at all.

"He's going to get himself killed." Michonne announced a few days later to Rick. They were out on a run, trying to find some new clothes for Judith who was growing like a damn weed.

"I know." Rick didn't need to ask for clarification, he knew exactly who Michonne was talking about. "He won't talk about it. Just keeps pushing forward like if he fights hard enough he'll just, I don't know, find her behind a tree or something."

"He's not being careful. I think he just enjoys the fight right now."

"I know." Rick sighed again, rubbing a hand across his jaw. "I just don't know what to do about it. I spoke to Carol but he won't talk to her either."

"What the hell happened when they were out there alone?" Michonne finally asked after a few moments of silence.

"I sure as hell won't be asking, all that question will get you is a bolt in the ass." Rick laughed. Michonne smirked, the assessment was accurate.

"Think she's alive?" She asked the question quietly, as if doing so would make it easier to answer.

"No idea. I hope so, but I just don't know where else we can look. I know Daryl's been back to that damn funeral home a dozen times since Atlanta but Beth's not been back there." He sighed. "Rosita's pretty much healed up, just needs to build up the muscle again, Carl's doing well. Abe's going to start pushing for DC soon."

"He is. Will we be going with them?" Michonne asked.

"I can't make that decision, it'll have to be a vote. Whatever the outcome I'm not sure if Daryl will leave the state without her."

"It's going to be a shit show." Michonne predicted.

"I know." Rick agreed in a resigned voice.

In a strange twist it was actually Rick and Michonne themselves that ended up having to begin the confrontation after coming across a huge herd of walkers as they headed for home that same day.

"We can't stay here, we're right in the path of those walkers. They're moving slow but we all know how fast that can change and there were hundreds of them, we have to get out of their way." Rick summed up his report from the days run. Grim faces looked back at him from around the kitchen table.

"I've been saying for days its time to get back on the road to DC." Abe declared and the rest of the room tensed, waiting for Daryl's inevitable reaction. They didn't have to wait long.

"Would you just shut the fuck up about DC?" Daryl yelled, banging his fist on the table. "You know why we can't go."

"Why? Because some fucking girl is maybe still in the state, somewhere? Man be reasonable here, she might still be alive but you sure as shit aint gunna find her."

That was it, Daryl saw red, his temper got the better of him and a second after the words had left Abraham's mouth Daryl was leaping across the table to take a swing at the much larger man.

Rick had stood next to Daryl for this very reason and grabbed onto him, yelling for Tyreese to do the same. Still, it was a struggle to hold the redneck down.

"Enough!" Rick barked. Daryl threw the two men off him aggressively, stalking his side of the table like a caged wolf. "Enough." He said again, calmer now. "We have to leave here, there's no option there. But we have not made the decision yet to go to DC, once we're out of the herd's path we'll have a vote. Everyone gets one so you best start thinking about what you want our next move to be. Now pack up."

With that final command the room erupted into muttered conversations as people split into smaller groups to go pack their meagre belongings and discuss which way they would be voting. Carol placed a hand on Daryl's arm and he stopped pacing, allowing himself to be led gently from the room, away from the fuming red head.

He barely heard her words of hollow reassurance. Abe was probably right. He had to face the fact that he would probably never see Beth again. She might be dead. She might be a walker. She might be with good people who had taken her in or she might be with bad people who were holding her prisoner. The harsh reality was, Daryl would probably never know.

A/N Well. There we go. I'm really sorry this chapter took so long to come. I'll not bore you with all my excuses, just know life got in the way and then I had crazy writers block. It was the bit in Atlanta that got me, I must have written and then re-written it fifty bloody times. Honestly, writing this chapter was like trying to get blood from a stone, or pulling teeth, or 'getting over' Coda -_-

On the plus side this chapter is almost 12'000 words long so… that counts for something right? Yes? No? Yeah I still suck…


End file.
